First Dance
by DominoTyler
Summary: Something interesting happens when the Rowdyruff Boys return to Townsville to attend High School with the Powerpuff Girls. Drama, crime fighting, suspicion, adventure, confusion...everthing to create the perfect tv drama, all in one story!
1. Pilot

Hey, Fanfiction... (sheepish wave). Well, I've been using fanfiction for nearly two years now, and, while it's not the first time I've strayed from the Harry Potter fandom, it's the first time I've strayed from the Harry Potter fandom with a multi-chapter fic, besides Avatar: TLA and Twilight, but that doesn't count because one's got like two chapters because I'm uninspired with that one and the other is a Harry Potter crossover...

Anyways, so I'm very anxious about crossing over! It's always nerve-wracking, so be nice, please. :)

This is going to be written sort of in the form of a television drama, with different "episodes" rather than chapters, the first being the "pilot" episode. They should consist of about 3,000ish words, if all goes well. I also can't be sure when each chapter will be posted.

Well, I hope you enjoy my drama!

Just so you're all aware, I might change a little bit away from the show because...well, really, it's because I can. ^^

Enjoy!

I do not own The Powerpuff Girls or the song First Dance by NeverShoutNever! Please enjoy. :)

**...**

**It started with your hips**

**So I moved up to your lips**

**To take a chance, ask for a dance,**

**Cause you're the cutest thing on this side of the world**

**We call our homes**

**Yet I feel so all alone half of the time**

**We gotta live with what we got**

**And I got nothin'**

**So I pray you take my hand so we can conjure up somethin' rad**

**And if you could move on with your life**

**Just like you do, just like you shoobie do do doo**

**But you could make everything alright**

**And I want you to**

**Because ever since the first dance**

**All I thought about was lovin on you**

**So I moved to the dance floor**

**With instincts and nothing more**

**I had ants in my pants, I did the boogie dance**

**And there was nothing to do but laugh**

**So I made another leap, hoping to sweep you off your feet**

**I said baby maybe we could bust this joint**

**And see if my place is open to chill**

**And if you could move on with your life**

**Just like you do, just like you shoobie do do doo**

**But you could make everything alright**

**And I want you to**

**Because ever since the first dance**

**All I thought about was lovin on you**

_**First Dance-NeverShoutNever!**_

**...**

Brick sighed as he pushed the door open to he and his brothers shared hut outside of Townsville and slammed it behind him. Boomer was in the basement, presumably painting, listening to that awful Indie-Rock-Pop-Hipster-Alternative junk he was into at full volume. Butch was in his room with some girl he must have picked up while Brick was out.

He pulled a drink from the fridge and made his way through the atrociously messy kitchen towards his bedroom.

That was the fourth of six girls to dump him this year with the ridiculous notion that he was in love with someone else. Who on Earth did he have to be in love with? He thought fiercely.

But as soon as he'd opened his bedroom door, he knew who the girls must have been referring to. His walls were plastered with newspaper cutouts and target profiles, all of the same girl, or, rather, three girls. But they were only hanging there for the one girl.

Brick took a gulp of his drink as he say down at his desk and picked up a pair of scissors. He set down his drink and held up the Townsville Examiner, reading one of the articles that was continued from the inside.

_Interviewer: First, let me congratulate you on you and your sisters' one-thousandth arrest!_

_Blossom Utonium: Oh, well, thank you! But we just like doing it to keep everyone safe. No need to thank us. It's our job!_

_Interviewer: Speaking of jobs, is it true that you and your sisters are working now?_

_Blossom Utonium: Oh, no. With school starting up soon _and _our crime fighting, there's no way we could ever have a job at the same time. But once school is over..._

Brick's mind began to wander after that, and he couldn't concentrate hard enough to read. He busied himself with cutting out the picture of the Powerpuff Girls attacking Mojo Jojo for the millionth time as he thought.

School...that was something he had been doing on his own for goodness knows how long. It was all do easy that he figured he owed it to himself to learn what normal kids did. He figured he'd be a straight-A student if he were to attend school.

But that was the problem. It was in his nature to _not _do what he was told, like homework. So he didn't bother attending.

But the Powerpuff Girls-Blossom-were going to high school...what if he were to enrol? And what if he were to bump into Blossom there?

Brick swore and threw down his scissors. What was with him thinking of Blossom so much recently? He lifted his baseball cap off of his head and ran his hand through his hair before replacing the battered old cap and dropping onto his bed. He had started cutting out the pictures and hanging them up so long ago, so he'd never forget what they looked like, so he could recognise his target the moment he ran into her. He didn't know when, but at one point over the years, he started to cut the pictures out more carefully. He pinned them up closer to his bed, so he'd see them when he woke up. And he began to cut out more of the single pictures. Namely, the pictures of Blossom. And then he began reading the newspapers, wanting to know more about the Powerpuff Girls, what they were like. And again, namely Blossom.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He shook his head and got off of his mattress, exiting the bedroom on a spur of the moment decision. He descended the stairs into Boomer's studio and bedroom, walking around pencils and spilled paint, trying not to bump into any of the paintings hanging from the ceiling, all of which appeared to be in various stages of drying.

"Hey, Boomer," Brick called.

"Yeah, Brick?" came the muffled reply. Brick peered around a wall and spotted Boomer behind an easel, holding a paintbrush to the canvas.

"Pack up everything. We're leaving."

"Leaving?" He didn't look up from his painting.

"Right," Brick replied. "I'm sure the Jojo will let us stay at his place while he's in prison."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

Boomer finally looked away from his canvas, over his reading glasses at Brick.

"Oh. I get it."

They were practically shouting over the music Boomer had on.

"You're in love."

"Huh?"

Boomer turned the knob on the radio to the left several notches, allowing them to hear themselves think. "You're in love," he repeated all-knowingly.

Brick snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. Who would I even be in love with?"

"I'm not sure," Boomer said. "I can only think of one girl, and we haven't spoken in ten years. So..."

"Well, you're wrong," Brick said, sounding a little too defensive when he thought back on it. "I just want a change of scenery. And I'm bored with the petty little crimes we've been doing lately. I want to go back to Townsville and have a bit more of a challenge. And I want to go to school. To challenge my, you know, mind."

"Challenge," Boomer stated.

"Right," Brick said, clenching his fists, a little irritated by the way Boomer sounded so mocking, as if Brick was lying and he knew it.

"Sure, why not," Boomer finally said. "Townsville High has an excellent AP Arts programme. I'm in."

"Great," Brick said. "We're leaving tomorrow night, so make sure you're, eh, art...is packed by then."

"Will do, buddy," Boomer replied. The music went up as Brick ascended the stairs. It followed him and he grumbled as he shut the door to the stairs, trying his best to block it out a little bit.

Brick banged on Butch's door a couple of times, knowing Butch was going to be furious at him for interrupting.

Butch kicked the door open. Brick had stepped back just in time. Butch now stood before him with no shirt on, pants undone and slung low on his hips. His hair was in disarray and he and an angry flush in his face.

"What?" he snapped.

Brick smirked. "Pack your stuff, we're leaving."

"Fine!" Butch growled, slamming the door in Brick's face. The door frame cracked, but the door stayed standing.

Brick returned to his room to do a little bit of packing before he went to bed. Tomorrow, he'd leave. And on Monday, at school, he'd finally be able to sort out all of his weird, new emotions. He wasn't in love with Blossom. He couldn't be.

...

_BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

Blossom muttered as she rolled over in her bed, pulling her duvet tighter around herself, curling up into the foetus position as she slept.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

"Buttercup, it's your turn!" she called to her sister in the bed across the room, across Bubbles' bed.

"You're closest!" her sister's raspy voice returned.

"Doesn't matter..."

_BEEP BEEP BEEP!_

"Blossom, if you don't pick up that phone I swear you won't be able to even use your arms tomorrow."

"It's your turn!"

"If one of you two doesn't pick up that phone in ten seconds, neither of you will have arms to pick it up with!" Bubbles' shrill voice screamed out from the until-then silent bed.

Blossom groaned as she finally threw off her duvet and sleepily shuffled to the phone, putting it to her ear.

"Yeah, mayor, what is it?"

"Hey, there."

Blossom's eyes popped open. She was wide awake now.

"You there, sweetie?"

She slammed the phone down onto the receiver and pushed it off of the table, stepping back and almost tripping over her bed.

"Geez, Blossom, what did he want?" Buttercup mumbled.

"Uh...wrong number," Blossom said shakily.

"What?" Buttercup snapped. "That moron woke me up for nothing? Give me the phone, I'm going to trace that call and bash the idiot's face in!"

"No, no, it's alright, Buttercup," Blossom said, calming herself. "Be reasonable. It happens to everyone."

"Not smart people," she grumbled as she settled back into bed.

"Whatever," Blossom said, laying back down. "Just leave it."

"Both of you leave it!" Bubbles hissed. "I have cheerleading tryouts tomorrow and I will not be tired from something as stupid as this! Goodnight!"

Blossom smiled a little. Bubbles was always so happy and innocent during the day, but at night her temper could rival Buttercup's.

But her smile slipped away when she thought about the voice she'd heard over the phone. It couldn't have been...could it? No... And even if it did sound similar, it had been ten years, and a voice is bound to change, even if only a little bit. Therefore, it wasn't..._his_...voice, and she could rest easy knowing that she was safe from the boy that had been recently plaguing her dreams.

_Brick_.

...

"Bubbles has really improved since middle school."

"Yeah, whatever. We all know she's going to make the squad or whatever you call it. Why do we have to waste time watching her tryout?"

"Do you have anything better to do?"

"Anything's better than watching stupid, ditzy girls in short skirts flouncing around on the football field. That's wear the freaking football players play, not those floozys."

Blossom rolled her eyes. "Whatever. The other football players don't mind."

Buttercup shrugged. "They're _guys_. Of course they don't mind. I'm a girl. I do mind."

"Why aren't _you _with the other football players?"

"Why should I have to be? I made the team. That doesn't mean I have to be friends with all of them."

Blossom shrugged. "I'm friends with the girls on the volleyball team."

"Yeah, but you're _friendly_."

Blossom shrugged again. "Whatever you say, Buttercup."

Buttercup laid out on the grass, resting her head on her hands, her shaggy pixie cut tossed lightly in the small breeze. "They're all stupid guys. They go for the first creature with legs and boobs. I need a challenge. Not just some loser who thinks he's all that."

"He needs to _be _all that," Blossom stated.

Buttercup smirked. "Exactly."

"Good luck with that, Buttercup. I'm going to go congratulate our sister on making the cheerleading squad."

Blossom's stood and walked to her quickly approaching sister, who threw her arms around her sister.

"Great job, Bubbles!" Blossom exclaimed. "Let's go get ice cream to celebrate, alright?"

"Sure, but I want to tell Mitch first, okay?"

"Go ahead," Blossom replied.

Bubbles ran off across the field to the football players to tackle her boyfriend and tell him all about how she managed to make the team, even though everyone knew it was inevitable.

Then the three of them left the football field, headed to the ice cream parlour.

...

Buttercup left the place early, not a huge fan of ice cream and unable to take much more freaky exclamations.

"I swear, those two are getting weirder," Buttercup muttered as she shoved her hands into her pockets.

She was about to turn a corner when she heard a loud crash and a siren going off. Spinning around, she leaped into the air and soared towards the jewellery store down the street. She spotted the criminal in a split second, his bright green shirt making him extremely noticeable.

And his shaggy black hair and smirking face made him extremely recognisable. Buttercup had only a half a second to come to her senses before she would have smacked right into a telephone pole. She darted through the air after the boy who she was trying to tell herself wasn't Butch, catching him by his shirt. He ripped free of it and turned around. His smirk deepened. He laughed.

"If you wanted me to take my shirt off, Cup, you coulda just asked."

The shirt burst into flames in Buttercup's fist. One of her newly discovered abilities.

"Yeesh, what bug's in your panties?" he asked, smirk deepening even further.

"What are you doing here?" she spat darkly.

"That's strictly prohibited information, I'm afraid," Butch said. "Anyways, I'm off to find a new shirt. I didn't steal anything, so you have no reason to follow me. And if you do, I'm not afraid to hit a girl, so prepare for the most challenging battle of your life."

Buttercup's glare deepened. "Get out of my face, before I burn it black."

He chuckled darkly. "It's nice to see you again, Cup. I'll see you around."

"Don't count on it," Buttercup growled, watching him fly off before she slowly descended back to Earth, dropping the ashes that remained in her hand from Butch's shirt.

She decided not to tell her sisters. They didn't need to know about this. It didn't concern them.

...

Boomer sat in the park, sketching in his newly purchased school sketch-pad. The girl he was outlining at the moment was familiar, one he'd sketched before, but never with so much detail. He concentrated very hard as he pulled out his pastels and filled in her eyes, the exact same baby blue as her dress. He ran a soft red colour across her delicate lips, a soft yellow and a little bit of silver through her hair. He wondered if the skin he was filling in was as soft as he had drawn it to look.

He shook his head. No, Brick was the only one silly enough to fall in love with his enemy. That wasn't what Boomer did. No, Boomer was far too smart to fall in love with his enemy. That wouldn't happen, he knew it.

...

Bubbles, despite how she appeared, was unhappy. She couldn't place why she was unhappy. All she knew was that something was putting a damper on her heart, and it was making it almost hard to walk around and smile at people as if she really was happy. This didn't happen often.

She wasn't entirely depressed. Just in a bit of an unhappy mood.

So she did what she usually did when she was unhappy. She packed a notebook and a pencil into a bag, draped it over her shoulder, and left for the park, her favourite place in the world. It was filled with the kindest squirrels any park had to offer, and the ones with the best stories to tell.

Bubbles set up at her usual spot at the water fountain, leaning against the cool stone bowl, and opened the pages of the fresh notebook she'd found addressed to her in their mailbox, wrapped in crinkled brown paper. It was strange, because no one knew she liked to write, and there was no return address.

The inside had a note on it, one she was having troubles deciphering.

"One day, maybe we'll meet. Until them, write down the things and thoughts in your life I have missed."

She shrugged and brought her pencil to the paper, allowing words to flow.

...

The next morning, Blossom woke up at the first alarm and rolled out of bed tiredly. She was in and out of the shower in ten minutes, her hair brushed in two. She was pulling on her favourite pink t-shirt and jeans at the time her sisters' alarms went off.

The two argued over the shower for several minutes as Blossom pinned back her hair with her favourite pink barrette. While she had ditched the bow sometime in middle school, the clip was a part of her, and her red hair just didn't seem to look right without it.

Bubbles ended up getting the shower first, having the valid argument that she needed more time to do her hair, and they'd all be late if she were to go last.

Bubbles tied her hair into two pigtails at either side of her neck and had on a blue t-shirt and white skirt when Buttercup returned to dress in her green tank top and black jeans, the rips in the knees completely authentic.

They draped their book bags over their shoulders, retrieved their breakfasts to eat on the way to school, said goodbye to the Professor, and were off to school.

Bubbles ran off with Mitch the moment the entered the schoolyard. Buttercup went to the back of the school to talk to her gym teacher about the fact that he was putting her in a personalised gym class, for the safety of the other students. This left Blossom to head to her AP Geometry class by herself.

She was surprised to find she wasn't the only person to beat the teacher, and on the first day. AP classes were going to make her a very happy girl.

She took a seat in the back of the classroom, all of the front seats already having been occupied, and being in the second row just made her feel like a try-hard. So the back was fine by her.

The bell rang loud and clear, and the teacher entered the classroom, shutting the door behind him as he strutted down the aisle.

"Hello, class," he said, not looking at anyone, going straight to the board to write his name in large, cursive letters. "My name is Mr. Larson, welcome to my Geometry class. Today we're going to be starting with..."

Blossom twitched as she heard the door open at the back of the class. Late, on the first day of school, and to an AP class. Well, every class had its idiots.

But just why did the idiot have to be late? The only seat left was the one next to hers, and she didn't want to be stuck next to...

"Ah, Mr. Jojo," said Mr. Larson. "Thank you for joining us. Take a seat."

"Don't mind if I do, Mr. L." It was his voice, the voice from the phone.

This was not going to be a very good year.

...

Well, there's "Pilot." What did you think? (Wince) Be gentle, please.

I'm thinking that Blossom and Brick will be the main characters, but we'll follow the lives of the respective sisters and brothers as well.

Please review! I'd like to know how I did with this fandom. Hope I didn't break any rules... I feel like a tresspasser.


	2. Challenge Accepted

_**Previously on "First Dance."**_

_**Brick: My brothers and I decided-**_

_**Butch: YOU decided-**_

_**Brick: That we would move in with The Jojo back in Townsville so we could go to High School. You know. Challenge our minds.**_

_**Boomer: Right. Our MINDS.**_

_**Blossom: Anyways, they're back and I'm sure it's going to cause problems for my sisters and me.**_

_**Buttercup: Speak for yourself! I'm tired of beating up the same old guys. I can't wait to have a little fun bashing these guys' faces in!**_

_**Butch *Smirk* We'll see about that.**_

_**Bubbles: But more importantly! I made the cheerleading squad! And *whisper* Someone gave me a notebook with a mysterious note. I think I'm going to try and figure out who it is.**_

_**Blossom: That was previously on "First Dance."**_

...

"Don't mind if I do, Mr. L."

Blossom trained her eyes on the board at the front of the room, her hand clenching her pencil tightly, trying to control herself. She found herself very angry with Brick. Why was he even here? He was going to ruin High School for her!

"Hey."

Blossom pinched her eyes shut. Of course he was going to try and speak to her. Why should she have expected anything else?

"Hey, Blossom."

Blossom whipped her head to the side to glare at him. He was smirking. Of course.

Blossom had to prevent herself from faltering. When had he gotten so attractive? He was ten times more muscular than when she'd first met him, and he had his long red hair twisted back into a pony tail at his neck. She shook her head, her glare never wavering. "What?" She snapped.

His smirk deepened. "How's my favourite Powerpuff Girl, huh?"

Blossom rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the board, where Mr. Larson was beginning to go through the Syllabus. "Don't talk to me, idiot. Just leave me alone and I won't have to destroy you."

He laughed, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there were others in the classroom. "Ah, don't be like that, sweetheart. What d'you say we put the past behind us?"

"You two, quiet," said Mr. Larson.

Blossom straightened her back and stared down at her paper, writing her name in the top corner to make her seem as innocent as possible. Then she turned quickly back to Brick.

"I say that's not possible," Blossom whispered once Mr. Larson turned back to the board. "How did you even get into an AP class, anyways?"

He shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "I'm not as big of an idiot as you think I am. I can do some simple geometry as good as the next guy, I suppose."

Blossom turned away from him, finished with their conversation.

She was relieved when it seemed he was going to let her alone, but all of that relief flew away when about halfway through the lesson she felt small balls of paper being tossed at her back.

She turned to glare again, igniting one of the paper balls on fire midway to hitting her in the face. It dropped in a pile of ash to the floor.

Brick laughed.

She was finally appeased when a buzzer went off above them.

"You're free to go, Blossom," Mr. Larson said, pointing to the door.

She smiled. "Thank you, Sir."

She dumped all of her stuff into her backpack and jumped into the air, flying with ridiculous speed out the door.

...

A little earlier

...

Bubbles loved AP art. The first day was free style-she could draw, paint, or create whatever she felt like. She decided she was in a very abstract sort of mood, so she set up her canvas and went to get a bowl of water for her brushes.

She squeaked when she'd returned to her canvas to find her worst enemy sitting in the desk next to her easel, a sketch pad in his hands. The water bowl fell from her hands, smashing and spilling water everywhere. Bubbles was in the air in a moment, hands held out defensively.

"Bubbles!"

She looked at her art teacher, who was frowning upon her disapprovingly.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"Don't threaten the students! Clean up your spill and paint me something!"

"But-!"

Her frown deepened and Bubbles sadly sank back to the ground, her black Mary Janes clicking when they reached the tile floor. She cleaned up the spill and placed the broken glass in the trash, getting a new bowl and filling it with water.

"I see you haven't forgotten me," Boomer said when she returned, his eyes focused on the sketch pad in his lap. He was angled just so that Bubbles couldn't see what he was drawing. He had pastels laid out before him, and was currently using the palest yellow.

"How could I forget you?" Bubbles asked. "You're only my worst enemy."

He laughed quietly and continued to draw. Bubbles picked up her paint brush and made blue strokes at random, hoping they would all come together in some impressive form in the end.

"I don't see us as worst enemies," he finally said. He still hadn't looked up. All Bubbles could see was the top of his blonde hair.

"You don't?" she asked quietly.

"No," he stated. "We've just had a few differences."

"You mean differences as in my fist wanted to punch your face, but your face wanted to headbutt me into the ground?"

He laughed again. "Exactly."

"Hmph." Bubbles turned back to her art, switching out her colours. It was abstract, she could tell, but the more she let her brain float as she painted, the more she noticed just what she was allowing to pass from her mind through her brush and to the canvas. There, up in the right corner. That was Boomer's eye. And there, down at the bottom. That was his shadow. And in the middle? That looked just like his shirt laying on the floor.

Taking a deep breath, Bubbles connected everything to make it look like a strange, distorted, oblong sort of tree. There. No traces of Boomer. Correct?

"That's a nice tree."

She looked down at Boomer to see he was in such a position that he must have been watching her paint for quite a while.

She blushed, wondering if he noticed any of the similarities between her art and his appearance. "Thanks."

She noticed his sketch book was closed. "What did you draw?"

He shook his head. "Not gonna show you."

Her eyebrows narrowed. "That's not fair. I showed you mine."

"You did no such thing. I just happened to be able to see it. It's not my fault you're lousy at hiding things you don't want to be seen and I'm not."

She glared. "Fine. I don't want to see your stupid picture, anyways."

He smirked. "Yeah, you do."

Her glare deepened but, before she could say anything, a familiar buzzing came through the speakers.

"You're dismissed, Bubbles."

"Thanks!" she exclaimed, draping her backpack over her shoulder before zooming off through the door and out the front of the school, meeting her sisters along the way.

...

A little earlier

...

Buttercup liked being first to welding because it meant she got the best equipment. It didn't matter today, as they'd be going over the Syllabus and safety routines and the final project and other useless information, but she still wanted to name her territory. No one else was going to get her equipment.

"You're in my seat."

Buttercup glared at nothing in particular, not even giving Butch the pleasure of having her look up at him.

"I don't see your name on it."

Butch made a point to laser his name into the back of the chair, right above the hole in the back, nearly singeing her backside.

"Still doesn't matter," she replied. "You snooze you lose. Go sit in the back, stupid. No one wants you here, anyways."

He growled, taking the seat next to hers.

"Don't test me, Cup," he grumbled.

She smirked. "Just shut up."

He growled again and was silent.

The beginning of class was uneventful. Butch made several attempts at speaking to her, all of which she shot down almost instantly.

"Why're you being so rude, Cup?"

"What's with the stupid nickname?" Buttercup finally demanded. "I don't call you Boo or something moronic."

He smirked. "Would Babe be better?"

She glared.

"That's it. You're new name is Babe."

"I hate you," she grumbled.

Finally, she was able to get out of the stupid room to fly off and take her anger at Butch out at some unsuspecting criminal. Or hopefully monster, because she was allowed to kill them.

...

"He's so infuriating!" Blossom shouted as she kicked the giant purple beast in the eye. "Who does he think he is, anyways?"

"He's just like his brother!" Bubbles screamed while simultaneously shooting lasers from her eyes at the feet of the creature. "They think they can just show up at our school? They should be arrested for all of the junk they put us through! Not to mention the stuff we don't even know about!"

"They seem shadier than ever," Buttercup agreed.

"But..." Blossom said as the monster toppled over backwards, unconscious. She began to tie him up. "Did any of you notice that they've gotten rather...attractive?"

Bubbles sighed a breath of relief. "Good, I'm not the only one who thinks that."

Buttercup gave the dead monster one last kick. "Whatever. I still hate them. All three of them."

Blossom nodded vigorously. "Oh, of course! I mean, they're evil!"

"Right," Bubbles said, nodding also. "We need to make a promise that no matter what they say, no matter how friendly they are, we will never see them more as our enemies. Agreed?"

Blossom nodded and placed her hand on Bubbles' outstretched one. "Agreed."

Buttercup grinned and placed hers in the middle as well. "You've got it. There's no way I'm ever giving up a reason to punch his brains out."

Bubbles and Blossom laughed with her until the police approached them.

"We'll take it from here, girls. Why don't you go on back to school?"

Blossom nodded. "Thank you, Sir. Have a nice day!"

They jumped into the air and sped off back to their school, picking up their backpacks from the school yard where they left them as they went along.

...

Blossom slid into her seat in Chemistry, the last class of the day.

"Ah, Miss Utonium."

Blossom smiled. "Hello, Sir."

"I trust you saved the day again?"

"Sure did," Blossom replied. "Just ignore the state of my clothes. And I can barely feel this black eye, so please try not to worry."

He laughed and set a stack of paper on her desk. "You're teachers passed along your schoolwork."

She smiled again. "Thank you."

He nodded and returned to the board.

She was immersed in what was happening in class, until she heard her name. She turned and raised her eyebrow at Brick. "What?"

He handed her something. A bandage?

"Your elbows are bleeding all over the floor."

She looked down and realised he was right. With a begrudging "Thanks," she turned back around and put on the bandages. "Now leave me alone."

He chuckled and left her alone the last five minutes before school ended.

...

Bubbles' final class of the day was Literature and Composition. Nothing was happening in the class at the moment-everyone was packing up. So Bubbles picked up her homework from the teacher and returned to her desk to sort through it.

Something in her Algebra book caught her attention, and she flipped open to a page marked by a thick piece of paper.

She didn't even hear the bell ring. She simply sat in the chair, staring almost blindly at the beautiful piece of artwork.

And it wasn't just beautiful because it was a picture of herself.

She scanned the entire page, trying to find a signature or maybe a note, but all she found was a simple "RR."

Did she know anybody with the initials RR? She didn't think so.

Sighing happily, she slid everything into her bag and drifted out of the school.

...

Buttercup was so glad her last class of the day was gym. She'd talked it out with her coach, and he said that he'd gauge the mood she was in before deciding whether or not she was allowed to play with the other students.

She made the mistake of cracking her knuckles as she entered the gym. Her coach pointed to the empty weight room in the back. Buttercup sprinted through the games of volleyball and entered the room. She was surprised to find she wasn't alone.

Butch grinned at her. "Hey, Babe."

She glared. "What are you doing here?"

She began jogging around the track, following a little schedule Coach had laminated for her for the month.

He continued grinning as he punched blow after blow at a punching bag. "Did you forget you're not the only one too strong for their own good? All Coach had to do was look at me before he sent me in here."

The bell rang and Buttercup stopped running as Butch picked up a folder and a pencil from a corner of the room. He winked before leaving. "See ya, Babe."

As the door swung shut, Buttercup punched the punching bag as hard as she could. It crashed into the opposite wall as Buttercup picked up her own backpack and strutted from the room.

...

"Do you know anyone with the initials RR?" Bubbles asked as they walked home from school. She couldn't take her eyes off of the drawing.

Blossom thought a moment as she tapped her bandaged elbows. "Ryan Robinson?"

Bubbles' nose crinkled. "The kid from the wrestling team? I don't think he can even hold a pencil, let alone draw a picture."

Blossom shrugged. "He's the only one I can think of."

Buttercup sighed. "Guys, I don't want to go back to school tomorrow. _All _of my classes are with Butch. I don't know if I'll be able to _not _punch him in the face."

Blossom giggled. "You've got gym class with him, don't you? Just...wrestle or something until you're not angry with him anymore."

She rolled her eyes. "Gym class is only 45 minutes, Blossom."

Blossom laughed. "Well, I have almost all of my classes with Brick. How do you think I feel about that?"

Buttercup shrugged. "He can't be worse than Butch. He just doesn't know when to stop."

"They're the Rowdyruff Boys," Blossom muttered. "None of them know when to stop."

Buttercup groaned and they entered their home.

"Hi, Professor!"

"Girls!" he exclaimed, coming out of the kitchen in his favourite apron over his favourite lab coat. "I can't wait to show you my new invention! Oh, girls, this time I've really got it!"

...

As they ate their strangely large supper, Bubbles couldn't take the silence anymore.

"What is it?" she finally exclaimed.

"Alright!" the Professor announced with a grin. He pulled something from his pocket. "It's the instant healer!" He pulled out something that looked like a dragonfly shaped brooch from his pocket. "It works one at a time, so after every battle you just prick your finger lightly, and you'll be instantly healed! But, like I said, one at a time, so each of you has your own. It only works once a day, but I think it could fix the world!"

"Wow, that's amazing, Professor!" Blossom exclaimed. "Does it...work on already healing wounds?"

"Of course!" the Professor handed her the pin and Blossom lightly pricked her finger. Instantly she felt the pricking on her elbows cease and her sisters watched as her black eye slowly vanished.

"Genius, Professor!" Blossom cried, ripping off her bandages.

"And there's one for each of you, too," the Professor said, handing one to the other girls.

They ate for a few more moments in silence. "So," he said finally. "How was your first day of school?"

"Terrible!"

"The worst!"

"I'm not going back!"

The Professor blinked. "I don't understand! You've always loved school. What changed?"

Blossom sighed. "The Rowdyruff Boys are back."

...

Brick couldn't be happier. He had talked to Blossom today! He hadn't exactly figured out _why _this made him happy yet. Maybe Boomer was right. Maybe he had somehow began to fall for her, even though he hadn't talked to her in years. Whatever the case, it made him happy, and he was going to make sure this happy feeling didn't go away. He was going to go after her.

"So, boys," Brick said, grinning as he reclined in the Jojo's chair. He rested his head in his hands and leaned far back. "How was your first day of school?"

Boomer dropped his backpack on the table and sifted through it to find his sketch pad. "I think I made a pretty good...impression."

Butch smirked. "I can't wait to go back tomorrow. Buttercup already hates me. It's great!"

Brick grinned back at his brothers. "Good, good... And, uh, I think that my challenge...heh..." He laughed once. "Has been accepted."

...

I hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for more! ^^ Now, I'm gonna go watch Jane by Design. Maybe I'll have a review by the time it's over? ;)


	3. Thinking Makes Me Tired

Previously on "First Dance."

Brick: My challenge has officially been accepted. Buttercup _will _be mine.

Blossom: Ha! In your dreams.

Brick: You're already there.

Blossom: Ew!

Buttercup: Seriously, keep it to yourself.

Butch: What would you say if I told you I dream about you?

Buttercup: I'd hit you.

Last episode, we found out we have gym together. All alone in that little room...you should probably keep an ambulance on call.

Butch: You little b-!

Blossom: Anyways! School has started, and we found that most of our classes include the Rowdyruff Boys. I don't think I can handle it...

Bubbles: I don't know if I can take any more secrets...first the journal and now a drawing with the initials RR in the same handwriting as the Journal... I'm going to find out who this guy is.

Boomer: He's probably just some loser. I wouldn't bother.

Bubbles: I'll bet he's way cooler than you! He seems...sweet.

Blossom: Keep yourself together, Bubbles.

Buttercup: Another thing-we decided that, even though the Rowdyruff boys are somewhat attractive-if you go for that kind of thing-we will never see them as more than our enemies.

Blossom: Also, the Professor came up with a new invention to instantly heal us after each battle! That way, if any of us are too injured after a battle to go to school, we can heal up and go back like nothing happened. And I won't have to accept any more bandages from Brick.

Brick: You like my bandages.

Blossom: Um...

Brick: She wants me.

Buttercup: You make me sick. That was previously on "First Dance."

...

Bubbles blinked awake, the sun shining on her face, heating her body and making her bed seem far too comfortable to be legal. She didn't want to get up, but knew Buttercup would be angry if she didn't get in the shower immediately. And then Blossom would rush them and it would be a whole big mess...so getting up was her favourite option.

Sitting up, Bubbles rubbed her eyes and gazed around her room. Blossom and Buttercup were still asleep! Glancing at her clock, she found it was five-thirty. School began at eight, giving her two hours to get ready before they had to walk to school.

She didn't feel like going back to sleep. Stretching, Bubbles threw aside her blankets and pulled on a pair of sweats over her shorts. She tied up her uncombed hair and laced her tennis shoes. Grabbing her backpack, she crept quietly out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

A walk in the park seemed like the ideal way to spend her morning before she had to return. Blossom's alarm didn't go off until six, so she had a half an hour.

It was rather bright out for morning. She supposed it was because she was never up this early, so she never noticed. It was probably like this every day. She was pretty unobservant sometimes. She took a deep breath of the clean, warm summer air and sat down at the fountain, rifling through her backpack and pulling out the leather-bound notebook she'd been given by her anonymous new friend. She pulled out the pastel drawing of herself from within its pages and held the signature - RR - up to the little paragraph the presenter had written her. The handwriting was nearly the same. And the written passage was also signed with a swift "RR," so they must have been the same. She sighed, sliding her index finger over the writing. Maybe she'd meet this guy in the future. She definitely hoped so.

With a sigh, Bubbles returned the drawing within the pages of the journal, and zipped up her backpack before flying home. Blossom was waking up as she returned. Bubbles had just enough time to slip beneath the cover and close her eyes so it would seem like she'd been sleeping the whole time. Bubbles heard Blossom yawn as she shut off the alarm. She could see her sister stretching and rubbing her eyes, blindly stumbling out of bed and into their bathroom. She heard the shower start up in the next few minutes.

Blossom yawned again as she stood in the steaming water. She undid the braid she kept her hair in at night and soaked her hair. She yawned again and again. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night. The day before had taken quite a toll on her mentally. She'd stayed up the majority of the night, thinking about the bane of her existence. But that just wouldn't do. So she kept her mind under control by reading her entire History book. She was a master at her first year of History before class had even really begun.

Blossom woke up Bubbles first so she could get into the shower before a big tantrum came out of Buttercup. She was surprised to find her sister was dressed in her cheerleading practice uniform, and almost wide awake. She kept her suspicions to herself and continued dressing and rifling through her backpack to try and keep her mind off of Brick. Just because he was there didn't mean she had to think about him! It was just Brick! He was just a normal, stupid boy. With superpowers. He wasn't anything special. No better than any other boy she'd ever met before. In fact, he was probably worse. He was evil.

Once Bubbles had exited the shower, Blossom woke up Buttercup, who didn't say a single thing until she was in the shower and had to call Blossom in to find her a new bottle of shampoo.

"Are you okay, Blossom?"

Blossom looked down at Bubbles, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor as she brushed through her hair, plaiting it down the centre into pigtails.

Blossom attempted a smile. "Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem very out of it."

"I'm just nervous about a geometry test."

"On your second day?"

A pause. Blossom sighed. "I'll be fine, Bubbles. I'm just doing some thinking."

"About Brick?"

Blossom's head jerked towards her sister, looking up at her innocently from the floor. Bubbles smiled. "It's alright if you are. I know it's going to take me a long time to accept that I have to keep thinking of Boomer as an enemy. I mean, look at them - they're all gorgeous!"

Blossom laughed. That was Bubbles. "What about you? I know you didn't go to sleep in your cheer practice uniform."

Bubbles looked away from Blossom as she twisted a hair tie around the base of her pigtail. "Yeah. I just wanted to do a bit of thinking myself. Like you."

"Well, between the three of us, we're the only ones with this problem. There is no way Buttercup could ever fall for Butch."

Bubbles giggled. "Unless she's falling from a punch he threw at her."

Blossom and Bubbles were laughing as Buttercup exited the bathroom, hair dripping all over her clothes. "What's so funny?"

Blossom calmed some. "Oh," she said, smiling at Buttercup. "Nothing."

...

Geometry class began wonderfully. Mostly because Brick wasn't there, but also partially because Blossom's teacher loved her from the moment she answered the first question as if she were an expert.

Everything was crushed, though, when the door slammed open and Brick strutted in. In one hand he had a donut and in the other he had a coffee. Most likely stolen. Blossom narrowed her eyes at her textbook, trying to ignore him.

"Sorry I'm late, teach. Had a little problem with an - uh - friend."

"That's nice, Mr. Jojo," the teacher said absently. "Take your seat, please."

"Sure."

Blossom hid behind her book, but she knew it would be only so long before he tried talking to her. And she was right.

"So, how close are you and the guys from the Gangreen Gang?"

Blossom quirked an eyebrow. "What do you think? They're enemies."

"Huh," said Brick, biting sloppily into his donut. "Weird why they were asking me for Buttercup's phone number, then."

Blossom stopped moving a split-second before she glanced at Brick. Then she did something she'd never done before. She passed Brick a note before raising her hand.

"Yes, Blossom?"

"May I please go make a call? It's an urgent call for the mayor."

He smiled softly. "Of course, Blossom. Go ahead."

She nodded, gave Brick a pointed stare, and then left the room.

She sat cross-legged in the closet for only five minutes before there was a knock and Brick came inside.

He smirked. "Lovely setting. Mind if we skip first and go straight to second?"

Blossom glared and managed a punch to the arm within the tight walls. "Just shut up and listen to me! You cannot talk to the Gangreen Gang about Buttercup, you hear me?"

He shrugged. "Sure. Why?"

"Ace is dangerous for Buttercup..." Blossom said, looking at the door over his shoulder. She wanted to get this over quickly. She felt guilty about lying and skipping class. "They've had several flings in the past, and Buttercup gets angrier and more...upset over him each time. He's just not good for her. Please, never talk to Ace about Buttercup. Don't give him her number or her school schedule or anything."

He shrugged again. "Sure." Then he smirked again. "Under one condition."

She hesitated, contemplating just punching him to maybe induce amnesia. "What?"

"Go on a date with me."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't think so." She pushed around him and shoved the door open.

He laughed. "You'll come around eventually, babe."

She shook her head. "You keep telling yourself that, pony-tail."

He laughed again. "I don't have to. You'll come around."

"Whatever."

Brick grinned as he watched her turn the corner towards their geometry classroom, out of view. Then he laughed and kicked over a bucket. "She'll come around."

...

Bubbles was pointedly ignoring Boomer as she took down notes on point of view from her Art Teacher. It was very fascinating, she told herself. Far more fascinating than Boomer could ever be.

"Hey, Bubbles."

She squeezed her eyes shut before realizing she couldn't to continue to take notes with her eyes closed. She glanced sideways at him, hoping he noticed that she was glaring at him.

"What, Boomer?"

"Do you need to borrow my notes?"

Her glare dropped into a look of confusion. "What do you mean? I took-" She caught sight of her paper, which was nothing but a bunch of flowery doodles. At least, that's what the border was. The interior of her paper was a drawing of quite graphic proportions. It was Townsville, that much she could identify, only barely, considering it was on fire. A disfigured body lay in the centre of the fire.

Bubbles squeaked and she pushed back her notebook. "Um...if it's not too much to ask?" She said.

He smirked and pushed over his notebook. Bubbles tore out the drawing her wandering mind had allowed her to draw and quickly copied down all of his notes.

She thanked him and returned his notebook before pulling out her sketch pad and beginning to work on the example.

"Put down your pencils, everyone," the teacher suddenly said. "We're going to do a sort of fun project for the rest of class. People on the left, turn to your partner. People on the right, don't move, as your partners are going to be drawing you for the next ten minutes. When I ring this bell, switch. Then turn in your work at the end of class. Have fun!"

Bubbles shifted awkwardly. "Er...should I pose?"

Boomer smiled. Bubbles heart did a tiny little flip. "You don't need to. You look great just like this."

Bubbles was a little uncomfortable at Boomer's intense scrutiny, but managed to keep a blush from her face.

The teacher finally rang the little bell on her desk, signalling the switch. Bubbles managed to catch sight of Boomer's rendition of her. He did great. Almost as if he'd drawn her before. The details were so...expert.

She took a shaky breath, hoping she'd be able to draw him just as successfully as he'd drawn her. She picked up her pencil and started with a shaky outline of his face, working in the details as she went along. Soon you could tell it was a human being, but you couldn't exactly tell it was Boomer until she succeeded at his hair style, filled in his eyes and erased some extra lines around the edges. By the time the bell for the end of class was a few minutes from ringing, Bubbles was just adding a few minor adjustments.

"K, lemme see before class is over," Boomer said, swiping the sketch pad from beneath Bubbles' pencil before she could even attempt to protest.

He appraised it for a moment before returning the sketch pad. He nodded. "Nice work, kid. You might amount to something."

Bubbles didn't know if she should be flattered or insulted, so she decided to be indifferent. She ripped out the drawing and headed to the teacher's desk to hand it in. She silently slid her sketch pad into her backpack and was out the door the moment the bell rang.

She'd made it halfway down the hallway before realising she was being followed. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw she _was _being followed. And by Boomer, no less.

"Are you following me?"

He smirked. "We have the same Algebra class."

Her eyes grew wide before she turned her head back around violently. She stared so intently ahead that she almost missed her boyfriend headed right towards her.

"What's wrong, Bebe?" Mitch said as he dropped the arms he'd been holding open for a hug. "Don't want a hug today?"

"Oh, Mitch!" She exclaimed. She blushed, guilty. She'd almost completely forgotten she had a boyfriend. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little distracted this morning."

She caught Boomer pointedly looking away as Mitch kissed her. "Oh, yeah? Them Rowdyruff Boys giving you trouble?"

She smiled at Mitch, shaking her head. "They're not the problem, don't you worry."

He grinned. "I'm not worrying. We've got Algebra together, I'll walk with you."

She slipped her hand into his and smiled as they walked ahead. She liked Mitch. Not long after middle school, Mitch had really shaped up. Any anger or aggression he might have felt he let out in sports, leaving a very kind and nice person behind. He occasionally had mood swings, but that was okay with Bubbles. He was…sweet.

Algebra class was very interesting. Mitch seemed to be even more protective than usual with Boomer around. He took a seat at a table right next to Bubbles and kept his arm around her shoulder, even when the teacher asked him to stop and take some actual notes.

Bubbles didn't know if she liked protective Mitch or not. Boyfriend or not…she was having second thoughts. Really, they weren't that serious…

But no. She loved Mitch, and Boomer was off limits. End of story.

She wished it felt like the end of the story.

…

Buttercup didn't usually skip class. She was a good kid, despite her temper. But today was an exception. She just had to skip Welding. She was afraid that if she didn't, she might "accidentally" melt Butch's arm to the table.

He was getting on her last nerve. He really was. Attractive or not, he was still a pain in the butt who acted on aggression and stupidity. He was always angry and he was wilder and crazier and _stupider _than ever. She could just…

Buttercup growled and dropped down onto the toilet lid in the girl's bathroom. The third floor bathroom – the one that no one ever used because it was supposed to be haunted or something stupid like that. It made it perfect for when Buttercup needed a little privacy, that was for sure. She'd been using this bathroom since middle school (since the middle school was connected to the High School).

Yeah. He was attractive. So what? So was Ace and look what happened with him? Every last get together ended with her bashing his face in. So why should she even give Butch the chance to make her angry? If you look at it her way, she was saving him from a broken nose or a lacerated spleen or something. She was doing him a favour by staying away from him. A favour.

She kicked the door angrily, and it flew across the room. She was lucky it didn't smash the wall. That could have been a problem.

Why was she so angry? Didn't she hate Butch? He was _Butch. _She did hate him! But…she also had these feelings…ones she couldn't explain…ones she'd never had for Ace before.

She heard the bell ring and sighed as she trudged out of the bathroom. She'd told her teacher she was going to the health room, so her backpack was with her. At least she didn't have to go back for it.

When she walked through the door of her History class she had to do a double-take. Butch was sitting in the back, next to the only available seat remaining.

He turned towards the door to grin at her. "Hey, Babe. Saved you a seat."

Buttercup sneered at him. She passed right by, to a kid in the seat she would normally have taken. She picked the boy – a rather large boy from the football team – up by the collar of his polo and glared at him. "Move."

"Er-"

"Buttercup, you can take that seat in the back." It was the teacher.

Buttercup glared. "I'm not sure that's best for the safety of the people in this classroom. If you didn't notice, that's Butch. I think he's using that last name 'Jojo.' He happens to by my Archenemy. I'm sure you remember the Rowdyruff boys. The enemies of the Powerpuff Girls. Any of this ringing a bell?"

The teacher, though, wasn't going to have it. He just continued to glare at her. "Take a seat, Buttercup."

"I want this seat."

"Let go of Mark's collar and take a seat next to Butch. You'll be perfectly fine."

She continued glaring as she slowly let go of "Mark" and dropped him back into his chair. Then she backed to the back, slid her desk to the other side of the room, and sat next to the window. The teacher glared. "I'll talk to you after class."

Buttercup smirked. "We'll see."

…

Hi! ^^ I hope you enjoyed! Please review if you've got the time!


	4. Who is Whose?

No excuses! I've been gone from this story so long that I deserve to be flogged.  
>Okay, I hope you like this! ^^<br>I'm gonna give a quick run-through of what happened last.  
>Blossom tried to convince Brick not to tell Ace anything about Buttercup because she wants Buttercup to stay away from Ace, but Brick wants a date in return for keeping the secret. Both Bubbles and Blossom are having trouble trying to stay away from Brick and Boomer, and Buttercup is so conflicted with her feelings that she kicked down a bathroom stall, skipped a class and got in trouble with a teacher because she refused to sit where he told her to. Okay, enjoy! ^^<p>

Previously on "First Dance":  
>Blossom: I'm sort of freaking out. I'm supposed to hate Brick, right? Well, what if he's making things...difficult?<br>Bubbles: Get yourself together! Boomer is attractive and a great artist, but you don't see me pawing all over him!  
>Boomer: You think I'm a great artist?<br>Brick: You don't hate me? Score!  
>Buttercup: Stop being such a saint, Bubbles. Everyone knows you're most likely going to leave Mitch for Boomer!<br>Butch: And you're going to leave the green guy for me.  
>Buttercup: Who says I'm doing anything with you?<br>Blossom: Green guy? Buttercup, are you with Ace again? Brick, did you-?  
>Brick: Calm down, dollface. Let's just get to da episode, huh?<br>Blossom: *glares*  
>That was previously on First Dance.<p>

Blossom could not believe this was happening. She just couldn't! She was Blossom Utonium, star pupil at Pokey Oakes High School, captain of the volleyball team, Powerpuff crime-fighter... And she was going on a date with Brick Jojo, one of her and Townsville's worst enemies.  
>She felt like she was betraying herself and everyone she knew. But the reason she was going on this date was to protect someone she loved! Wasn't that enough?<br>Let me back up a little bit.  
>This whole thing began after school the day Blossom skipped class to tell Brick to keep Buttercup out of his conversations with Ace Gangreene. She was almost to the end of the parking lot when she saw Brick, leaning up against the fence around the school, speaking with Ace. When Brick noticed she had stopped walking home and had paused to gape at him, he gave her a wink.<br>Blossom closed her jaw and stormed over to where he was speaking with Ace. She grabbed him by his backpack and began dragging him away from Ace.  
>"Hey, there, Blossom!" Ace exclaimed, giving her that deceiving, disturbing grin. "Where's your sister?"<br>"At Cheer practice," Blossom said conversationally, all the while dragging Brick away. "Leave us alone, twerp."  
>Ace called after the two of them, but Blossom didn't stop, not even when Brick demanded it.<br>When she was halfway to her house, she let go of Brick quickly, pushing him away from herself.  
>"What are trying to pull, here?" She demanded. "Huh?"<br>Brick made an infuriatingly smug face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."  
>Blossom's eyes continued to narrow. "I don't believe you. You were talking about Buttercup after I told you specifically not to. Why are you doing this?"<br>His smug grin stayed right in place, and if Blossom didn't want answers so bad, she'd have probably slapped him right then and there.  
>"Huh?" she demanded.<br>"I'm thinking there's really only one solution to your little problem," Brick said finally.  
>This confused Blossom. She hadn't realised she'd had any problems other than the infuriating boy standing in front of her.<br>"You need to go on a date with me."  
>Blossom glared. "I don't see how that is going to fix ANYTHING."<br>Brick shrugged. "Here's how I see it-you go on a date with me, I keep my trap shut about little Miss Anger Management. It's a trade-off. Not to mention a win-win situation. I've already had three girls ask me out since I started coming here. You'd be with the coolest new guy in school."  
>Blossom gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, shocked at what she was about to do.<br>"What time should I expect you?"  
>Brick seemed shocked also, as he didn't even answer. Blossom opened her eyes to see his jaw was dropped. Blossom snapped her face into a glare. "I SAID, what time should I expect you?"<br>He composed himself easily and gave her a lazy grin. "'Spect me around seven-thirty. I'm taking you some place special."  
>And that's how Blossom got herself into this mess. Now it was five to seven-thirty, Bubbles was at Cheer practice, Buttercup was on an intense mountain biking trip, and Professor Utonium was in his lab and was informed that Blossom was going to a friend's house. She hated lying, but really, was there any other way? It seemed the only way to keep Buttercup safe.<br>Shaking her head as the doorbell rang, Blossom shook her head and grabbed a hold of her purse, heading down to get the door before the Professor got curious and wandered out of his lab.  
>She quickly opened the door a crack and squeezed through before Brick could push his way into the house or see what was inside.<br>"Alright, let's get this thing over with," she said with a sigh.  
>Brick grinned. "Sure thing, dollface. Come with me."<br>She trudged along after him, swatting him away when he tried to take her hand and giving one word answers whenever he tried to start a conversation. Finally, he sighed.  
>"You hate me, don't you?"<br>Blossom's eyebrows shot far up into her bangs. "You're really asking me that?"  
>"I knew it."<br>Blossom let out a small laugh. It kind of hurt when she noticed he was being serious, but she kept on. "You're one of my worst enemies! You constantly beat me up when we were kids, and you've NEVER shown any interest in me until now! I don't know what changed with you, but nothing has changed with me."  
>"But why?" Brick asked. "You just now said I've changed. Why can't you?"<br>"You haven't changed in any way that's going to convince me to start liking you," Blossom said. "You're still a criminal."  
>"Oh, yeah?" Brick said angrily. "Well, for your information, I haven't stolen a single thing since I moved back here."<br>"It's only been like a week," Blossom said, rolling her eyes. "And old habits die hard. Who are you living with, then? Where do you get money to BUY things?"  
>"I got a job," Brick said. They started walking again. He was just happy she was actually putting something into the conversation now, no matter how much he hated the topic.<br>She rolled her eyes once again. "What place would hire someone who used to make a living killing and stealing?"  
>"The dump," Brick replied. "Virtually the only place that will hire someone with a criminal record as superb as mine."<br>"Superb!" Blossom exclaimed.  
>"I mean...big..." Brick replied. "Anyways, I'm working on the whole model citizen thing right now. It's all good."<br>"For your information, model citizens don't blackmail people into going on dates with them," Blossom said, but she was a bit distracted. What was that awful screeching sound?  
>"Sorry, but how else would you have said yes?" He seemed a little perkier at remembering they were on a date.<br>"Do you hear that?" asked Blossom.  
>He tilted his head upward, listening. "That screeching? Yeah, it's really annoying. Let's go, maybe it'll be quieter in the restaurant."<br>"Can we check it out, first?" Blossom asked. "Please?"  
>Brick sighed. "Fine, if you insist. We have to be at the restaurant by eight, though, or they'll give our table away."<br>"Yeah, okay," Blossom said, jumping into the air and flying off towards the source of the noise, leaving a flash of pink light behind her. Brick soon caught up with her, and they were flying side by side for a few moments until they landed in the centre of Townsville.  
>Blossom barely had time to look around when there was a large crash right beside her, and she was knocked over into Brick.<br>"Oh, my gosh!" Blossom exclaimed, staring down the giant robotic leg. "What is that?"  
>Brick helped Blossom up, his fingers lingering on her elbows for perhaps a moment longer than was necessary.<br>"It's Jojo," he said solemnly.  
>"I thought he was still in prison!" Blossom said. She shook her head, taking her hair into her hands to clip it back. She swore. "Sorry, Brick, but I'm going to have to break our date."<br>When she jumped to fly off and destroy this robot, Brick grabbed onto her ankle and yanked her back down.  
>"Wait!" Brick said. "Don't. Just leave it for someone else to clean up. Come with me."<br>Blossom glared. "Who else? This is my job! Let go!"  
>Blossom kicked free and zoomed up towards the sky, way up high until she reached eye level with Mojo Jojo.<br>"Ooooohhhhh, hellooooo," he said in his jerky Japanese accent. "Where are you sisters? Is Blossom all by herself today?"  
>Blossom glared. "Shut up, Mojo! I'm not by myself! I've got Brick!"<br>She glanced down at the ground and saw Brick was standing with his hands in his pockets, staring up at her.  
>Mojo Jojo laughed. "My son? He would never rise against me! You are sadly mistaken, little girl."<br>He moved a lever within his giant glass shield, and a big metal hand came out of nowhere, nearly knocking Blossom out of the sky. She managed to evade it, and then swooped around, coming up from under and jamming her fist into the mechanism connecting the top control centre to the rest of the robot.  
>'Oh, gosh,' she thought to herself. 'Where are you, girls?'<p>

Bubbles's cheerleading practice was quite eventful. So eventful, in fact, that she wasn't sure she could stay much longer.  
>As usual, cheer practice and football practice went side by side. But not as usual, the art club came around to paint their own interpretation of the Pokey Oakes high school mascot statue, which just HAD to be right beside where the Cheerleaders practiced.<br>Bubbles was doing perfectly fine in practice, until she noticed Boomer was a member of the art club, and his position showed that he most definitely wasn't painting the mascot. Instead, he was sketching her. It was a club, so he was entitled to do whatever he wished, but Bubbles kind of wished he'd get scolded.  
>She tried her best to ignore him, but found it became exceedingly difficult. His eyes...the way he scrutinised her every time he looked up from his sketch boom...it shocked her every time. She nearly dropped the girl she was supposed to be spotting.<br>Things only got worse when coach let out football practice early, and Mitch headed straight over to the cheerleaders to wait for her.  
>Mitch stood right beside and slightly in front of Boomer. It was clear he was trying to tell Boomer to back off.<br>Finally, practice let out, and Bubbles approached the two of them. Well, more Boomer than anything, but when Mitch held out his arms for a hug, Bubbles couldn't just say no. So she let him embrace her before she insisted she had to go and get changed, and he could walk her home afterwards.  
>When she returned, Mitch had a bloody nose and Boomer had a black eye, and they were still at it.<br>"I told you, I didn't do anything!" Boomer was insisting, pushing against Mitch. He must have really been holding himself back. Bubbles was stronger than Mitch.  
>"You drew a picture of my girlfriend, you creep! I told you to leave her alone! You hear me? Stay away!"<br>"Guys, stop it!" Bubbles exclaimed, pushing them apart easily. Boomer was REALL Y holding back. Mitch she knew she could knock over with a flick, but she probably could have poked him and he would have fallen back. That was nice of him, she supposed. He could have killed Mitch of he'd wanted to.  
>"What is going on here?" Bubbles demanded.<br>"This creep was drawing pictures of you!" Mitch exclaimed.  
>"So you hit him?" Bubbles asked. "Did you ever think that maybe I ASKED him to draw those for me?" she lied. She didn't know why she was defending him, but she couldn't stop herself.<br>Mitch didn't know how to reply. He stared a moment, then wrapped his arm around her shoulder, trying to turn her around so they could head off, the wrong way, towards home.  
>Bubbles struggled away. "No! Just go home, Mitch, okay?"<br>She pulled her ringing phone from her pocket and held it to her ear, holding up a finger to Mitch to get him to stop talking.  
>"Yeah?" she said into the receiver.<br>"Bubbles come quickly!" It was Buttercup. "Mojo Jojo escaped from jail and he's in Townsville square with a giant robot!"  
>"Mojo Jojo?" Bubbles stated, shocked.<br>"Yes! I have to go help Blossom; she's fighting him all by herself. Come quick!"  
>The phone went dead. Bubbles jammed it into her pocket.<br>"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Mitch, I gotta go save Townsville!"  
>"That money-guy's back again?" Mitch asked.<br>Bubbles nodded and she was off.  
>It didn't take long for her to notice that she was being followed.<p>

Buttercup was pedalling so furiously that she was afraid she might break this special bike the Professor had made that would withstand any speed and force she put the poor thing through. She was nearing the end of the borders of town, so she pulled a quick left, going even quicker around corners. She was blasting around the perimeter of the town when someone stepped right out in front of her. She barely had time to stop, but managed just before she ploughed the person over.  
>"Watch where you're going!" she exclaimed, glaring fiercely at...Ace?<br>"Hey, babe," he said, grinning.  
>Buttercup glared at him. "Leave me alone," she said, trying to manoeuvre around him.<br>He stepped in her way, placing a hand on her handlebars. "Yeah? Why should I?"  
>"We're done, Ace," Buttercup replied, not looking at him. It's not really how she felt. It was more of what Blossom felt, but she had to believe Blossom was right most of the time.<br>"Oh, yeah? 'Sat what your sister told ya?"  
>Buttercup narrowed her eyes at Ace, daring him to come in closer.<br>"Leave me alone, Ace." Her voice was low and dangerous. "And let go of my bike."  
>His lips curled back in a sneer. "No."<br>"You heard the lady!"  
>The two of them jumped apart to see someone else Buttercup had been avoiding strutting straight towards them. Maybe she should have just ridden clear through the state like she'd originally planned.<br>Ace let go of her bike, straightening up to cross his arms and lean back in his personality filled stance. Buttercup knew his eyes were narrowing behind those glasses as he sneered.  
>"And who are you?"<br>"Name's Butch," Butch said, grinning wildly. "And you're messing with my girl."  
>"YOUR girl!" Buttercup protested, but she was ignored.<br>"Last time I checked, she was MY girlfriend," Ace said, adjusting his posture a little as Butch cracked his knuckles.  
>"Ex," Buttercup said through gritted teeth, her fingers clenching tightly around her bike's handlebars.<br>"Yeah," Butch said. "You heard her. Ex. She's mine."  
>"I am not!" Buttercup exclaimed.<br>Butch shot her a severe glare, but other than that, she was still being ignored, and her path was still being blocked.  
>Ace and Butch were currently staring each other down, neither so much as blinking.<br>"Well, I need to go..." Buttercup said finally, placing her foot on a pedal so she could push off.  
>Two hands flew out and grabbed a hold of a handlebar, but neither moved more than that.<br>Suddenly, there was a loud crash around them. Buttercup jumped off of her bike and flew into the woods she was currently in, searching for the source of the sound.  
>It was a giant robot.<br>It didn't take long for Butch an Ace to catch up, but it didn't matter, for as soon as they'd made it to where she was, she shot off in pursuit of the giant robot headed towards Townsville.

Finally, Blossom thought as her sisters appeared to help. Buttercup had already been there, but had been hanging back. Apparently both Ace AND Butch were trying to prevent her from fighting. And then she'd had to alert Bubbles. But they were finally here, and kicking butt with two people on your side was better than one person.  
>The Rowdyruff boys did nothing but watch, though why should they be expected to do anything else? This...monkey, was practically their father. They couldn't be expected to hurt him.<br>Finally, they managed to destroy the robot, so now they were fighting Mojo hands-on. When he was about to surrender, though, he began laughing.  
>"You think you have got me," he said. "But you see, it will soon be I who has gotten you. Just watch, Powerpuff Girls. For I am MOJO JOJO! And I will WIN!"<br>Without warning, he dropped a smoke bomb. The girls choked and retched until they finally found their way out of the smoke. By the time the smoke had cleared both Mojo and the Rowdyruff boys, and Ace, were gone.

Almost 3,000 words. Close enough. ^^ I hope you enjoyed this! And please be patient with me, I promise not to abandon you without warning. ^^


	5. What do I do?

Hello! ^^

Previously on "First Dance."

Blossom: To try and keep Brick from spilling information about Buttercup to Ace from the Gangreen Gang, I had to go on a date with him! Luckily, though, I managed to get out of it. Unluckily, it was because Mojo Jojo is out of prison, and was wreaking havoc on the city of Townsville in a giant robot! Brick tried to keep me from fighting, but it's my job to fight, and he'll just have to deal with it.

Bubbles: I was just finishing up cheer practice and had changed out of my uniform when Boomer and my boyfriend Mitch got into a big argument over me. Boomer was drawing pictures of me, and Mitch didn't like it - not one bit. Boomer was nice enough to hold back and not kill Mitch, so I was nice enough to defend him and lie, telling Mitch I asked him to draw the pictures. I've got to learn to control myself...I shouldn't be so nice to Boomer, especially because I've already got Mitch...

Buttercup: They think they've got problems! I was all by myself; just mountain biking along, when out of nowhere comes Ace, trying to win me back! I decided to listen to Blossom for once, since she's only trying to look out for me, when Butch shows up and starts trying to convince Ace that I'm his! I'm nobody's! You hear me?

That was previously on "First Dance."

...

Blossom winced as she stepped through the front door, staring dejectedly at her ruined favourite shoes and her ripped favourite skirt, hardly noticing her bleeding arms or twisted ankle.

She had no idea what was going to happen now. She thought about it as she pricked her finger with the Professor's new invention, instantly feeling relief flood her battered body. She would most likely have to go on that date with Brick still - she was shocked to find she was almost upset that it had to be broken - but she wasn't so sure how that would work with Mojo back. Weren't they living in his lair? There was no way they'd be allowed on a date with a Power Puff girl, let alone back to school. They'd be forced to fight all over again.

She huffed loudly as she walked up the stairs to her bedroom, ignoring the stares from Bubbles and Buttercup, flopping face down on her bed. This was too much to even comprehend. She wasn't quite sure what to think or do.

She was so frazzled that she jumped into the air in an attack position when the phone went off. Blinking as she realised what the source of the obnoxious beeping was, she floated back down to the floor and picked up the receiver, holding it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Blossom."

Blossom's eyes widened and she glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

"Brick?" she whispered.

"You got it, babe," he replied. Blossom could practically see him grinning at her.

"Hold on," she replied, setting down the phone and sliding across the room to shut the door. She picked up the receiver and the phone with the little face painted on it, carrying it into the closet, where she sat down and shut the door behind her.

"Okay," she finally whispered. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to know if you were okay." Blossom was shocked by how sincere he sounded. "I was worried about you, and I feel kind of guilty about not helping you out. The thing is, Jojo being the guy who created us, if we rebel, he could easily destroy us."

Blossom's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah," Brick said. "So, are you?"

Blossom blinked. "Am I what?"

She heard chuckling from the other line. "Are you okay?"

Blossom's face flushed. "Oh. Yes, I am. Thank you."

"Are you mad at me for leaving you to fight by yourself?"

Blossom sighed. "No, I'm not mad. I understand where you're coming from. Besides, I had the girls to fight with me."

"Good," Brick said, actually sounding relieved. "I'm not sure what I would do if you were mad at me."

Blossom rolled her eyes, though Brick obviously couldn't see it. "Probably go back to whatever you did before you came back to Townsville."

"You mean think about what it would be like to see you again?" Brick responded.

Blossom didn't know how to respond.

"Is that weird?"

She managed to speak this time. "No..." she choked out. "I guess it's kind of...sweet. Tell me, Brick," she said with a sigh. "How do you really feel about me?"

This time the silence came from the other line.

"I think I'm falling in love with you." The answer finally came, and Blossom wasn't so sure that's what she had wanted to hear.

"O-oh..."

"Is that weird?" Brick said, like before.

"Um..." Blossom sighed, shaking her head. "No, of course not. I just...I'm not so sure I feel the same way." Then she quickly added, "Quite yet."

"I see," Brick finally said. "Well, I'll see you around. And Red?"

"Yes?"

"I'm still expecting that date," he said, and Blossom knew he was smirking.

She rolled her eyes again. "I know. I'll see you at school."

"See you."

And Blossom hung up the phone, shaking at the thoughts of what had just been conversed about.

...

Bubbles heard Blossom talking to herself in the closet, but was too hung up on her own thoughts and problems to even realise that that wasn't a completely normal thing to do and she hardly noticed. Instead, she walked right past the closet and entered the bathroom. She put a CD in the radio she kept by the bathtub, filled the tub with water and a sweet-smelling bubble bath, put her hair up and sank deep into the water, her eyes closing as a moan escaped her throat. She sighed, though, as she remembered everything she needed to sort out in her mind.

Mitch…or Boomer? She'd known each for about the same amount of time, though she hadn't seen Boomer in quite a long time. Mitch, who was sweet and great at football and knows what makes her happy? Or Boomer, who was secretive and quiet and artistic and knew everything she wanted and thought before she said it? Or even this mysterious person who had been leaving her wonderful gifts, this "RR?" Who was she meant to choose? Who would make her happiest? And if the answer was "RR," how would she come upon him?

She just didn't know. She had no idea what to think. She wished this was something she could talk to her sisters, her best friends, about. But she couldn't – they most definitely wouldn't approve. Blossom would be upset she was even contemplating pursuing Boomer, and Buttercup would be angry that she was ungrateful that she had Mitch. Everyone knew Buttercup used to have the hugest crush on Mitch, and hadn't been too happy when he'd decided to ask out Bubbles instead of her. She didn't know what to do.

Bubbles squirmed uncomfortably in her bathwater, which had run cold. Her CD had stopped and the bathroom fan was starting to spin wildly out of control from being overused. The clock on the wall read that it was past midnight. Bubbles yawned and hefted herself out of the bathtub, wrapping up in a towel and letting her blonde hair down. She unplugged the radio and shut off the light. The quiet almost suffocated her once the fan was off, so she turned on the radio in her bedroom, very quiet, because Blossom was in bed. She had no idea where Buttercup was, but she put that out of her mind. She had more important things to think about.

She quickly changed into a nightgown and plaited her hair into two braids, threw her towel in the hamper, and left the room. She descended the staircase to the kitchen, figuring she'd run into Buttercup on the way. Buttercup wasn't downstairs, not that Bubbles could see. Bubbles shook her head and headed into the kitchen. Buttercup had been known to leave in the middle of the night to go for a run when something was troubling her. She almost always came back with a cold and a bad attitude.

Bubbles poured herself a glass of water and quickly downed it to stomp out her hunger pains. She hadn't gotten to eat much today, but you're really not supposed to eat within two hours of bed because you're more susceptible to gaining weight, and she couldn't have that, not with a football game coming up. She'd need to fit into her uniform, and that meant no midnight snacks, even if she didn't get to eat supper. The water helped, at least for the moment, and she placed her cup into the sink and turned back, headed up the stairs to the bedroom. There she collapsed onto her bed, exhausted. Something crinkled beneath her, though, so she dragged herself and felt around on her duvet. It was an envelope. She ripped it open after noticing it had just her name scrawled in a quick calligraphy on the top and pulled out a piece of paper. In the dark, she could make out that the note wasn't very long, but she couldn't read a single word. Glancing over at Blossom, she saw that her sister was facing the other direction. Bubbles switched on the lamp and quickly scanned over the letter. Her window was opened, so she assumed it had been slipped in through there. This is what it said:

_My Bubbles,_

_I can't stop thinking of you, and it's very strange, because you're not the type of girl I figured I would ever be attracted to. In fact, you are so positively different than any other girl I've ever fancied that I've begun to wonder if my head isn't exactly screwed on correctly._

_Nevertheless, my thoughts seem to be dwelling on you more and more. You're all I can think about, and really, since I've met up with you once again, you're all I really want._

_I'm not sure I'll ever tell you all of this in person, or reveal myself to you, but I figured it was your right to know that someone out there was in love with you, even when you have your doubts about those around you. I may be in love with you Bubbles Utonium, and I just wanted to let you know._

_I will think about revealing myself to you. Until then, I would like very much to be your friend – a pen pal of sorts. If you would like this, I ask only that you leave me a response in the removable brick beside the fountain in the park. I know you know which brick I am speaking of._

_I will be awaiting your reply with baited breath._

_Yours truly,_

_RR_

Bubbles stared at the signature for an impossibly long amount of time. So long that when she blinked, her eyes burned and watered. She rubbed them and shook her head. Then she reached beneath her bed and pulled out the notebook with her drawing inside, and she slid the letter in as well. Then, pulling out her own pen, she began a response. She figured this mysterious person would like to know she was using the notebook, and he would definitely know if she used the paper, as it had little safari animals walking single file across the bottom of the page. She uncapped her blue pen and wrote, in her neatest cursive, the following letter:

_Dear RR,_

_Your existence had been puzzling me since the gift of this journal. Since then and the drawing, (which is beautiful, might I add) I have been scratching my mind, trying to procure a name and a face to match the initials "RR," and I have come up with none. I have been trying to guess at what sort of a personality a person such as yourself might possess, and I have settled on the idea that you seem very agreeable._

_I confess that I have developed a bit of a crush on you myself, and despite the fact that I have a boyfriend at present, I maintain no guilt in regards to this fondness. Therefore, yes, I would absolutely love to continue to exchange letters with you, if only to get to know my admirer, and to perhaps become friends._

_I hope to convince you to reveal yourself to me, for I believe that we could be great friends. But for your sake, I am willing to remain in suspense to your identity._

_Sincerely,_

_Bubbles_

Then she tore the page from her notebook, sealed it in an envelope and tucked it back inside the journal, zipping it up in her backpack. She would drop it off in the park before school tomorrow morning, and would wait with baited breath for a reply.

She went to sleep that night with butterflies in her stomach and no guilty feelings over the fact that she was contemplating a breakup with Mitch.

_Several Hours Prior to these Events_

'Bubbles and Blossom are really getting weirder," Buttercup thought as she shoved her hands into her pockets and walked to the kitchen. 'Blossom's talking to herself in a closet and Bubbles locked herself in the bathroom, music blaring so loud the house is shaking.' Buttercup shook her head and pulled open the refrigerator, examining the food selection lazily. She settled on a leftover slice of pizza, gagging when she realised it was Bubbles's weirdo veggie pizza. Broccoli on a pizza? Blech!

Buttercup dropped her piece in the garbage can and downed a glass of water, wandering around the living room to find something to do. Video games? Nah. She needed to get her muscles pumping. A jog seemed like the best option. Ripping off her sweatshirt, she tied her hair back haphazardly and was sprinting before she even left the house.

For the first time in she didn't know how long, Buttercup felt like crying. She was so confused – and about her _emotions! _When had that ever happened before? Ace or Butch…Butch or Ace… She already knew she loved Ace. She had for as long as she could remember. But everyone was trying to keep her from Ace, and now there was Butch to worry about. Butch who seemed to know just how to get her going. Even though they hadn't spoken a single polite word to each other, Buttercup couldn't deny the attraction she had to him. It was interfering with her regular thoughts of crime fighting and leading to her wanting to spend less time on that and more time on Butch. Were these the feelings normal girls had? She hoped so. She didn't want to seem obsessive.

Sighing, Buttercup turned a corner. With a shock, she realised where she'd been running to this whole time and stopped dead in her tracks. She stared up at Mojo Jojo's lair, hoping everyone inside was asleep and she wouldn't be noticed. She wondered which window would lead her to Butch the fastest, but quickly cut off that line of thought and turned away, running as fast as she could away from the tall building.

The next place she came upon was the dump, and she knew she should get out of there before something bad happened, but she somehow couldn't bring herself to pull away. Part of her, she knew, wanted to get caught. She wanted to run into Ace, no matter how much she knew that isn't what she should want.

Just as she'd hoped happened, and it seemed as though Ace had been waiting for her. He was leaning up against a fence, smirking in that way he always did, waiting for her to approach, slow down. She did neither, so Ace spoke.

"Hey, there, baby doll."

Buttercup tried to ignore him and keep on jogging.

"You ready to take me back yet?"

Buttercup continued to ignore him.

"Don't tell me you decided to go with that Rowdy Ruff Boy. He'll never be able to give you what I've got."

Buttercup stopped suddenly, unable to keep her mouth shut. She wasn't entirely sure why she said what she did, but she said it, nonetheless – "Butch is twice the man you'll ever be. Leave me alone, Ace. We're through."

She turned on her heel and sprinted as fast as she could, unable to take Ace's expression. She was serious this time and he knew it.

Buttercup felt a swelling sense of relief one she was out of his sight, though. Things were finally over between the two, and she felt like maybe – just maybe – she could figure things out from here on out without as many interruptions.

What she didn't know, though, was that someone _had _been awake at Mojo's lair, and had followed her here, to this very occurrence, and had heard every last word she'd had to say.

…

Hello, people! ^^ I've been getting a lot of alerts about this story recently, and figured today was as good as any other day to get this story picked back up again, especially because I can't do a lot today since I've got these awful allergies, and it's supposed to thunderstorm, and yeah…

Well, if you liked it, let me know if you've got the time! I love you all, see you! ^^


	6. Dear Bubbles

Does anyone want to make a cover for this story for me? ^^ I'll love your forever, mention you in a chapter, dedicate it to you, let you dictate something that should happen, and, if you have any, read one of your stories and promote it! ^^

…

Previously on "First Dance."

Blossom: That's it. I have a huge crush on Brick and he's in love with me. What else is there to say?

Bubbles: I might have to leave Mitch. RR and I are pen pals while he's deciding if he wants me to know who he is, and I just don't know about Boomer anymore…

Buttercup: Ace and I are through for good now. And Butch…No idea.

Butch: Don't tell Babe, but I overheard her breakup with that green guy _and _that she thinks I'm, quote, "Twice the man that Ace is," unquote. I knew it…

That was previously on "First Dance."

…

"I'm leaving a little early, girls," Bubbles called into the house. "I have to meet up with Mitch. I'll catch up with you later!"

"Bye, Bubbles!" Blossom called.

She received no reply from Buttercup. She knew she was saying goodbye in her head, and shut the door, hugging her journal tightly to her chest as she walked lightly down the path and onto the sidewalk, headed towards the school. Today had been a pretty good day so far, so she hoped it reflected what would be going on during the rest of it. She'd finished her shower early and had enough time to have a cinnamon roll left especially for her from the Professor, not to mention Blossom checked over all of her homework and it was all completely correct. That rarely happened, so it must have been a sign of a good day.

On her way to the school, Bubbles turned in at the park and headed straight to the fountain. There she knelt down and pulled out her letter to RR. She gently shook loose the brick she'd thought only she knew to be loose and, as she went to slide the letter inside, found it was full.

Setting aside her letter for a moment, she pulled out an envelope, taped to it a little brown package. After slipping her letter inside and replacing the brick, Bubbles slid the box into her backpack and stood, reading the letter as she went along.

_Dear Bubbles,_

_If you are reading this, it means that you have gotten my letter and I am ten steps closer to revealing myself to you._

_Have a wonderful day at school. I'll be there. Maybe you'll guess who I am, maybe you won't._

_Sincerely,_

_RR_

Bubbles had a huge grin on her face as she entered the school yard. She slid the letter into her pocket and pulled out the brown box, opening it slowly. She smiled as a macramé hemp bracelet was revealed. She didn't know how he knew, but the bracelet she'd been wearing for as long as she could remember had broken in her Art class the other day. She'd angrily muttered about it as she'd dropped it into the trash. Or…had it been Algebra? She shook her head. Well, at least this narrowed down her options to the boys in Algebra and Art.

She was tying the bracelet around her wrist when she bumped into Mitch, and all at once she knew she wasn't able to do this.

"M-Mitch…" she said as he hugged and attempted to kiss her. She, unconsciously, turned her head to the side, but felt absolutely awful about it afterwards.

Mitch frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I-I…" she shook her head.

"Bubbles, are you okay?" Mitch asked her, concerned. "You're looking kind of sick. Do you want me to take you home? I have my car today."

"N-no…" Gosh, what was with all of this stuttering?

"Are you sure? Because I –" He noticed her bracelet. "Where did you get that?"

"I found it."

"You found it?" Mitch asked, grabbing her wrist and pulling it up to eye level. "Where? It looks like it's brand new."

"I found it outside a store," Bubbles replied. "Someone must have dropped it on the way out. That's all."

"Was it a present?" Mitch asked suspiciously.

"Y-No!" She replied, very much too quickly.

"It was!" Mitch exclaimed. "Who from? Why are you keeping things from me?"

"It – no! I found it!"

"Stop lying to me!"

They were causing a scene by now.

"Mitch, please," Bubbles said, trying to reason with him. "I just found it. It's not a big deal, even if it had been a present – "

"You're lying!" Mitch nearly shouted, and Bubbles saw something behind his eyes snap. She remembered how compulsive he used to be. His hand rose and she was afraid for a moment.

That is, until Mitch was no longer tightly clasping her wrist and was instead on the floor.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hit a girl?"

Bubbles opened her eyes. Boomer was standing in front of her and Mitch, who had previously been standing menacingly over her, was lying on the floor. Uh-oh.

"You!" Mitch roared, easily getting back up to his feet. He got right into Boomer's face. Boomer, on the other hand, didn't move in inch. "It was you! You're the one who's giving Bubbles presents and keeping her mind off of me!"

Boomer blinked. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You're trying to steal her from me!"

People were definitely looking now.

"And you!" Mitch spun around, pointing a finger right in Bubbles' face. She looked at it, alarmed. "Are you cheating on me?" Bubbles said nothing. _"Are you cheating on me?"_

"Of course I'm no –" His hand swung out and smacked her right across the face. Bubbles tumbled to the floor, and though she'd felt heavier blows than this, she was so shocked by this that she burst into tears.

Two sets of eyes widened. The first, the large blue ones Bubbles had been thinking about so often lately, reacted first. The second simply stared on, stunned by what he had done.

"Bubbles!" Boomer exclaimed, dropping onto his hands and knees beside her. He placed a cool hand on her stinging cheek, and Bubbles winced. "You alright?"

She sniffled. "Yeah." Her voice was shaking almost uncontrollably. "I was just…surprised…"

"Bubbles!" Mitch exclaimed. "Bubbles, I'm so sorry. You know I never – "

Boomer turned on the boy, eyes blazing. "Leave. Now."

Mitch looked like he wanted to protest, but then Boomer moved to stand up, and he turned and headed away, but not without one last look behind him.

Boomer helped Bubbles to her feet. She wobbled a little and he steadied her, and then moved a respectable distance away. Bubbles appreciated it.

She sniffled. "Thanks. I don't know what's wrong with me…"

Boomer looked surprised. "With _you?" _He shook his head. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with you, dollface. He shouldn't have hit you. You didn't deserve it."

"But…I was going to break up with him," she replied, looking away.

"You still didn't deserve it," Boomer replied. "Does it hurt?"

Bubbles shook her head, though it did.

"Come on, I'll walk you to your next class."

Bubbles looked up at Boomer and gave him a smile. "Thanks. Oh, hey –" She thought better of it.

Boomer's eyebrows rose. "Yeah?"

"Do you know anyone with the initials 'RR'?" She asked, fingering her bracelet.

Boomer thought about it a moment. "I don't think so. Why?"

Boomer didn't miss the smile on her lips. "No reason."

But that decided something for him.

…

"_What?" _Buttercup and Blossom exclaimed at the same time.

"You didn't hear it from me," Gossip Gabby said quickly, turning away to tell the rest of the school what she had just witnessed.

"You go make sure she's okay," Buttercup said, cracking her knuckles. "I'm going after Mitch."

"Don't kill him," Blossom plead.

"That's not up to you to decide," Buttercup responded, though Blossom knew she wasn't going to do it. She would just knock him around a bit, and though Blossom didn't normally approve of that, this was a different circumstance.

Blossom headed to Bubbles' first hour class. It was early – not too many people were in the room, but she could hear voices.

"Bubbles!" Blossom exclaimed, bursting into the room.

The first thing she noticed wasn't the large, red, hand-shaped welt growing on her face, but the person sitting with her. Boomer was watching her carefully as she answered some question or another.

"Blossom?" Bubbles asked, moving to stand as Blossom moved closer.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Blossom demanded as she moved in, placing a hand on her face, peering into each of her eyes and making sure nothing vital had been hit.

"I'm fine," Bubbles said with a smile. "I'm just a little sore. But thank you for worrying about me."

"Of course I'm worried about you!" Blossom exclaimed, digging through her backpack and pulling out her little brooch. "You're not going near that boy ever again! Hold out your hand."

Bubbles obeyed. "I wasn't planning on it. I was breaking up with him, anyways." _Or, at least, trying to, _Bubbles thought to herself.

Blossom neatly pricked Bubbles' finger and the welt quickly shrunk in size until it was completely gone. Bubbles breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Blossom," Bubbles said happily. "See you at lunch?"

She nodded. Then she turned to Boomer. "Normally I wouldn't trust you with something like this, but considering all of your classes are with her, I have to ask. Please don't let anything happen to her."

Boomer placed a hand over his heart. "I'll protect her with my life."

Blossom didn't know if that was supposed to be a joke or not, so she simply nodded and left the room.

"What was that?" Boomer asked once Blossom had left.

Bubbles was confused. "What was what?"

"That thing she did to heal you," Boomer replied, standing up and lightly touching where previously had been an angry red hand mark.

"Oh!" Bubbles said. "That's the Professor's newest invention. It heals us instantly. We use them after battles, but can only use them once every so often because they have restart."

"Huh," Boomer replied, and then the bell rang, and they didn't have much time for talking.

…

Earlier

…

Buttercup was nearly pushing people over as she stormed through the hallways. She pushed someone up against a locker once or twice, demanding to know where Mitch had gotten off to.

She found him in a classroom, surrounded by a large group of people, laughing and talking as if he _hadn't _just slapped Buttercup's innocent sister. Buttercup didn't usually have _"soft spots," _but for Bubbles, it was a different story. Bubbles was innocent and young and didn't deserve what the jerk had done.

She stormed up through the group and glared menacingly at Mitch. "What is your problem?"

He sneered. "What is your problem?" He demanded in a snotty tone.

Buttercup continued glaring. "Don't test me. If you give me one good reason why I shouldn't knock your lights out right here and now, give it to me now or you're dead."

"I –"

"Times up."

Buttercup pulled back her fist and snapped it forward, easily knocking Mitch back and over a few desks. His followers moved to help him and Buttercup left the room, satisfied.

…

The moment Blossom left the art classroom, she was pulled to the side and into a broom closet.

She placed a hand on her chest, trying to slow her fast-beating heart after the sudden shock. Then she blinked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness, and looked up at the grinning person in front of her.

"Brick?" She whispered, unable to stop the smile that was forming across her lips. "What are you doing?"

"I'm asking you out again," he said, then winked. "Properly. Would you like to go to the movies with me this Friday night? Say, six for dinner?"

Blossom smiled. "Sure, Killer. We can do that."

And then the bell rang, and the two made their way to class together.

Blossom was a bit shocked when she felt Brick's calloused fingers lace through hers, but she smiled and didn't protest. It just felt…nice.

…

"Hey, Babe."

Buttercup internally scolded herself for the way she immediately turned at the sound of Butch's voice. "Yeah?"

He was grinning. "Heard you got in a fight. Why wasn't I invited?"

Buttercup sneered. "Hey, if you want to go and kick the crap out of Mitch, you have my permission. He deserves anything you can dish onto him."

Butch cracked his knuckles. "I'd be honoured. Anything for you, Babe."

Buttercup was shocked. Were those – _BUTTERFLIES? _Something had officially gone wrong with her. This was just not right. It almost made her sick. She hoped the butterflies died in her stomach acid. This wasn't right. This wasn't happening. _She did not like Butch. End of story._

…

The day had not been a good one, the opposite of what Bubbles had predicted. Sighing, she left the school a few minutes before her sisters. Because of what happened, she didn't expect there to be any letter under the brick, but she was surprised to find a little envelope neatly lying in the crevice. She thought she could literally feel her heart singing.

Unable to wait any longer, Bubbles dropped her backpack and sat up against the fountain. She ripped the letter open and scanned it furiously.

_Bubbles,_

_I heard about what happened today, and I'm so, so sorry that it happened. I hope you're feeling better and, trust me, you won't be hearing from Mitch for quite a long time._

_I was planning on waiting at least two weeks to reveal myself to you, but because I know you need the comfort, I have decided to cut it down to one week. This Saturday at nine, meet me here._

_Yours truly,_

_RR_

Bubbles stared at the letter for several seconds before she could bring herself to actually respond.

_Dear RR,_

_I'll be there. I can't believe it. You have no idea how excited I am to finally learn of your identity._

_Thank you for expressing your concern over Mitch. We're done. If he so much as comes near me, he will pay the consequences._

_Sincerely,_

_Bubbles_

…

I don't have much else to add to this chapter…I mean, I'm about 600 words short of 3000, like I promised for every chapter, but what else can I do? ^^

I hope you enjoyed this!


	7. Revelations

Previously on "First Dance."

Blossom: I do believe Brick and I are dating - and I don't mind!

Bubbles: Mitch and I are over - for good. After what he did to me, there is no way I'm ever going to talk to him again. Besides, I won't be able to - Boomer has been following me around to keep me safe. Not that I mind…

Also, RR told me he was going to reveal himself in one week - yes!

Buttercup: I need to figure out Butch and Mitch is dead. Enough said.

Butch: Should I let Buttercup know I know she thinks I'm amazing...or should I not? Questions, questions... *smirk*

This was previously on "First Dance."

...

Buttercup made it to gym that day ready to snap. She wasn't in the mood for a punching bag - oh no. She needed a real fight.

"Butch!" She snapped as she stepped into the separate gym, pulling off her sweater and throwing it to the side of the room with her backpack. The door swung shut behind her and Butch turned to her, grinning and cracking his knuckles.

"You look tense," he said with a wink. "Need a little sparring to calm you down?"

Buttercup grinned. "And don't hold back."

Butch stood in the middle of the room and waited for Buttercup to approach. They began to circle each other.

"Rules?" Butch asked.

"Nothing inappropriate," Buttercup said. "And no wussing out. No death blows. Fight until one of us is pinned for good."

Butch nodded. "You got it."

"One more rule," Buttercup said.

"What's that?" Butch asked, his guard lowering just enough.

"I win!" Buttercup exclaimed, throwing herself at him. She hit him with a punch to the gut. Butch spun out of the way and bent over for a second to catch his breath, giving Buttercup time to jump up onto his back. Butch swung her over his shoulders and snapped her onto the mat. Buttercup managed to spin and catch herself, then pop back up just as Butch's foot moved to pin her down. She grabbed him by the leg and pulled up, knocking him backwards and onto the ground. She landed on his chest and pinned his arms back with a sneer.

"So, I heard what you said about me the other night."

The sneer dropped and Buttercup looked vulnerable. "What?"

Butch spun her around so he was on top. With a grin, he leaned down close to her face. "Oh, just how I'm 'twice the man' Ace will ever be."

Buttercup's eyes widened, and then narrowed, and she shoved Butch off of her and crouched to pounce. "You _followed _me?"

He was still grinning. "Couldn't resist."

She jumped at him, striking a roundhouse kick that sent him sprawling. When he got back up, Buttercup punched him repeatedly, but Butch managed to block each one.

"You jerk!" She exclaimed. "That's a total invasion of privacy! I could report you!"

"But you won't," Butch said, catching her fist and leaning in close, right into her face.

"And why's that?" she snarled. The tension was so thick Buttercup could have drowned in it. They stared directly into each other's eyes, both glaring, though…what was that in Butch's eyes? He seemed not angry or thrilled but…_what was it?_

His grin deepened. "Because I think you _love me."_

That was _not _what Buttercup had expected him to say. Her eyes widened. _Why? _She asked herself. _It's not like it's the truth…is it? _She shoved him over and got him in a choke-hold. He tugged on her hands, but she wouldn't release. "I do not," she growled in his ear.

He swung her over his shoulders, just as before, but this time, he leaped on top of her, a knee on either side of her waist, pinning her hands above her head. But instead of grinning, his face was perfectly intense, emotionless.

"Oh yeah?"

Her chest was heaving. She didn't know quite what to think. She blinked, but smiled, sneered. "Yeah."

"I don't believe you."

Without saying another word, Butch leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips. She was shocked. Where had this come from? She soon found herself kissing him back. It was a perfect kiss, one like she'd never felt before. _One I'll bet stupid Mitch could _never _give me, _she thought.

Butch pulled back after a few moments and watched for a reaction.

It took her a few moments to find her breath. "That was against the rules," she said finally.

He sneered. "I've been known to break rules every now and then."

And he kissed her again. Buttercup didn't mind.

…

Blossom and Brick were partnered together for a History project that afternoon.

"Alright," she said, shuffling through her binder as they walked down the hallway together, towards Blossom's locker. "I think we should meet after school to do this, at least twice a week, to get some of this stuff done."

"After school?" Brick replied, looking a bit caught off guard.

"Sure," she replied. "But my place is off limits. The girls and the Professor would _never _let you in my house. I mean, maybe eventually, but they'd need…acclimating."

"Acclimating?" Brick shook his head. "Well, there's no way I'm taking you to my place. The Jojo is living there again, and he'd _kill you._ And I'm not talking protective father like you. I'm talking deranged sociopathic archenemy. I mean, he hasn't come out of his lab since he got back – I haven't even said a word to him since then – but he'd know if you were there, and you'd be dead in an instant. I'm not going to let you get killed."

Blossom hadn't thought of that. "Does the park sound okay, then? We could go there tonight."

Brick smiled. "Sure thing. And afterwards, how about a movie?"

"What about this weekend?"

"Then too."

Blossom rolled her eyes. "Sure, Brick. But no later than seven. It's a school night."

Brick smiled again. "Of course."

…

_Before Bubbles read the letter in the previous chapter_

…

Bubbles was laughing at a joke Boomer had told her as they entered the Algebra room.

"Bubbles!"

Her head jerked to the side to see who was calling her. It was Mitch. Bubbles turned away from him, back to Boomer, and continued laughing, though she wasn't in the mood for laughing anymore. She was never speaking to him, not ever again. She would simply ignore him, however difficult that might prove to be.

She requested a seat change. Halfway through class, Mitch was called down to the office and did not return. Bubbles didn't even see him at his football practise. _Good, _she told herself. _He deserves it._

…

Buttercup jumped at the sound of the bell and Butch grinned, reluctantly getting to his feet and pulling Buttercup to hers.

"Good spar," he said with a wink. "We should do it again sometime."

Buttercup kept her face expressionless as she readjusted her shirt and smoothed her hair. She didn't say anything else until she'd picked up her backpack and sweater.

She winked as well. "We'll see."

…

_That night_

…

When Bubbles got back home, she neatly folded her newest letter and tucked it away inside her notebook and flopped down on her bed before opening to a clean page and uncapping her pen with her teeth. Then she chewed her pen for a moment or two as she thought of what to say. Was there really any way to express her happiness at his revealing himself in just one week?

So she did the only thing she could think of to do – she just wrote.

_Dear RR,_

_Thank you very much. I admit that I was shocked that he had hit me, but I should have just cut to the chase and broke up with him like I'd planned on doing. Then I might not be in this position. Don't worry about me. I've got Boomer watching over me. And I'm not sure what it is, but he seems…safer than he used to. Kinder. So you shouldn't worry._

_But if anything good came out of it, then it was you. I cannot even express to you how ecstatic I am to finally meet you, though it's only been a week. We'll be great friends, I can tell._

_Before I write something I'll regret, let me just say that I will be there for sure, and if I'm not there, something has gone wrong._

_Sincerely,_

_Bubbles_

She folded and sealed the letter in an envelope.

Then she tromped down the stairs and hooked her bag over her shoulder.

"See you!" She called. "I'll be at the park for a little while!"

Little did she know, the house was empty but for the Professor.

…

Almost as soon as Blossom got home, she was headed out the door again.

"Where are you going?" Buttercup asked from the sofa.

"A friend's house," Blossom replied, her voice too high pitched.

This factor immediately alerted Buttercup to the fact that she was lying. She turned to look at Blossom over the back of the couch. Her eyes narrowed.

"Oh, yeah?" she asked. "Which friend?"

Blossom's mind raced. "Jennifer," she said. "Jennifer Tracy. She's in my History class, and we have a project together."

"Uh-huh," Buttercup replied slowly. "Well, don't be out too late, then."

"Of course not," Blossom replied. "I'll only be a few hours."

"Right," Buttercup replied, changing the channel as Blossom shut the door.

Blossom sighed in relief that her lie had worked – _for now. _Buttercup was _definitely _on to her, though. There was no denying that little factor.

Blossom walked at a peaceful pace to the park, not wanting Brick to think she was too excited about seeing him, though she really was. She found herself enjoying Brick's company far more than she ever believed she would. And while she didn't quite love him yet, she couldn't deny the very strange attraction she had to the redhead.

"Hey, Red!" Blossom looked towards the voice and found Brick standing under the pavilion at the park atop a picnic table, waving his hat to get her attention.

Blossom couldn't help but grin as she made her way to the table at her own pace. She sat down and set her backpack on top of the table.

"Hello, Brick," she said with a smile. "Ready?"

Brick winked. "When you are."

Blossom felt herself blushing as she pulled out folders and pencils and other such necessary items, and, to Blossom's surprise, they easily began their project, and had a considerable amount completed after only two hours.

Brick was soon becoming impatient, though, so Blossom decided they should take a little break.

She shut her book and Brick perked up immediately. "Are we done?"

Blossom smiled and shook her head. "Only for now. Why don't we do something else for a while?"

"Movie?" Brick asked.

Blossom shook her head. "I don't have the time. Everyone's already suspicious of me. I figured we could just go for a quick walk or something."

Brick took her hand in his after she had hefted her backpack onto her shoulder. It shocked her a little bit, but she didn't pull away. He smiled at her. "Sounds good to me."

Blossom's stomach erupted in butterflies and she decided she really liked this whole _dating Brick _thing as they set off.

When they'd left, someone else entered, just missing them. Bubbles headed straight to the fountain and sat down as she wiggled the little brick loose, dropping her letter inside before checking to make sure nothing else was there. She was a little disappointed, but it had only been a few hours since she'd plucked out the most recent letter, so she shouldn't really have been expecting much.

…

Buttercup moaned as she felt herself pushed roughly against a tree trunk. She was quickly silenced by rough lips pressing against her mouth. She soon felt Butch's hands wandering, and she stopped them as they tried to slip inside her jeans.

"Don't," she said against his lips.

Butch made a sound in the back of his throat. "Why?"

"Why do you want to?" Buttercup demanded.

He laughed. "You're joking, right?"

She glared and shoved him away. "No. It's not right. Not until I'm married."

Butch blinked. "But you've always been the rebel!"

"I fight _crime, _Butch," she said. "I'm the good guy. And, therefore, the good _girl. _And I don't do stuff like that."

Butch shook his head. "I don't believe it."

"Believe it," Buttercup retorted. "Why does it matter, anyways? It's not like you care anything for me. Why don't you just go and find some slut to shag until you're content?"

Buttercup was surprised into silence when Butch shoved her against the tree, pinning her there.

"You really think that?" he growled dangerously.

Buttercup looked him in the eyes, unsure of what to think.

"I do," she replied, though she really wasn't sure.

"Thanks," he said sarcastically. He let her go, and Buttercup fell to the ground. "Well, I'll just go find a different girl to _shag, _as you so delicately put it. Just know," he said with an evil stare. "I'll be thinking of you the whole time."

Buttercup watched him go, her mind rapidly changing about him.

…

_One Week Later_

…

The week had been fantastic, but Blossom was beginning to feel incredibly guilty. She'd been sneaking around with Brick all week, and it was starting to tear at her inside. On the one hand, she felt she never wanted to stop seeing Brick. But on the other, she didn't want to be constantly hiding such a huge part of her life from her sisters and the Professor. She wanted things to be completely out in the open, though she knew that could never work out.

"Are you alright?" Brick asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. It was Saturday afternoon, and the two were a bit tired from staying out late at the movies the night before. Blossom was sitting curled up between his legs, resting her head against his shoulder as they watched over the park, content.

"Yeah…" she said softly. "It's just…I really want my sisters and the Professor to know about you, but I know that they wouldn't take it very well at all, and I don't want to subject either of us to them."

Brick smiled. "We could work on them. How about you warn them that you're inviting me over to work on our project, and give them a few days to prepare themselves. Then, when I come over, I'll be as polite as I can possibly be and I'll wow them into believing that I'm different now than before."

Blossom sighed. "I hope it's that easy, but I suppose it's worth a shot. Right?"

Brick grinned. "Of course! I came up with the plan. It's perfect."

Blossom laughed. "Sure, Brick. I'll get right on it, then."

…

It was almost nine, and Bubbles was wide awake. Buttercup was out and Blossom was fast asleep. Bubbles was very, very quiet as she climbed out of her bed, still fully dressed, and hooked her backpack onto her shoulders before gliding above the stairs down to the second floor. There, she soundlessly opened the door and slipped outside.

As she made her way to the park, she couldn't help but become a little bit fearful. She wasn't a complete idiot. What if the person writing her the beautiful letters was a complete psycho? What if she was attacked? Of course, if she were attacked by a normal human, she'd easily be able to escape without even a little bit of harm, but what if it was a trick?

She shook her head. No, for some reason, this felt real. She knew it was real. She knew she was safe.

She approached the park. There was no one there – there was nothing but dead silence. She looked around, ready for anything. She was tired, so she decided that she could still be alert if she sat down at the fountain.

Resting soon turned to dozing, as dozing soon turned to sleeping, until suddenly, something made her bolt out of her sleep and onto her feet, looking around, holding out her hands, ready to attack.

"Who's there?" she asked, keeping her voice firm, gazing around the dark park. Her watch told her that it was nine-thirty-two. She'd only been out for a half an hour, but that was still later than RR had told her.

"I'm warning you," she said, slowly beginning to feel afraid. "If you try anything, I _will _kill you."

"Would you kill me, Bubbles?"

Bubbles gasped and whipped around, spotting a dark figure a ways in front of her. The gait was familiar, and it only took her brain a few seconds to register the figure as Boomer.

"Boomer?" she whispered, and he stepped into the dim light from the street-lamp above her so she could see his soft smile. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you I'd be here, didn't I?"

Bubbles blinked. "No, I –" Then it dawned on her. She was so stupid! She should have been able to see it! How easily he drew her in art class compared to the drawing she had received, someone who would have to be in the majority of her classes to know that she'd broken her bracelet, how kind Boomer was._ RR was Rowdy Ruff. RR was Boomer. _"You're RR?"

His smile deepened. "You figured it out."

"But you – "

"Were you expecting someone taller?" he asked. "Gosh, I hope not. That would really be a downer, eh?"

"You wrote all of those beautiful letters?"

His smile softened. "I did."

"You…love me?"

Quick as a flash, Boomer had her pressed close to him. He smelled like summer and pastels and felt as stronger than anything or anyone she'd ever felt before. He was hugging her gently, and he placed his head on her shoulder so he could whisper in her ear.

"I love you," he said, his voice low and raspy.

Bubbles' heart did summersaults and her stomach erupted in butterflies. She finally responded to his hug and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. She felt as if she were going to cry. "I love you, too."

"You're absolutely perfect, Bubbles," he said softly. "I haven't stopped thinking of you since we left Townsville. And then, when I saw you after I returned…I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay away from you."

"You must have felt so awful when you saw me with Mitch."

He chuckled lightly in her ear and she felt a chill run down her spine. "You have no idea. But it's alright now. Your sisters and my brothers took care of him."

Bubbles didn't even have spare room in her mind to worry about what had happened to Mitch. Because just then, Boomer began speaking again.

"Bubbles…may I…" he pulled back to look her directly in the eyes. "Kiss you?"

Bubbles' breath caught in her throat, and all she could do was nod.

So Boomer, as awkward and adorable as ever, watched her as he moved forward to place his lips on hers. Both of their eyes closed at the same time, and it was like Magic. Bubbles had never felt anything so wonderful, so perfect, not even with Mitch, whom she'd believed herself in love with. No, this – _this_ – was _perfecciόn. _And she never wanted it to end.

…

Whoa guys. Whoa. I actually made it to 3,000 words. _More _than 3,000 words. Craziness! I hope you liked it! ^^ I've been working on it for _a week._


	8. Just Fine

**I must admit, when I first started writing this story, I wasn't too sure of it, but you guys are really tearing through, here! I'm so glad, you have no idea. I'm honoured. I just wanted to take a second to thank you all for reading, even if you're not reviewing or favouriting or anything. Just thank you all so much! I appreciate every single one of you!**

**The plots really going to begin to pick up here, however slowly. It'll becoming a little faster than it has been, at least. I hope you enjoy! ^^**

…

**Previously on **_**First Dance**_

**Buttercup: Butch and I have…ahem…done things twice now, and the second time, Butch went too far. When I tried to stop him, he got a bit angry with me and I said something I probably shouldn't have, and he revealed that he might actually care for me as a person and not just a sex toy. Huh. Who would have guessed it?**

**Bubbles: I finally met RR…it's Boomer! I know I should have guessed it – it was just so obvious! But for some reason, I just couldn't comprehend….**

**Well, anyways, we've both let on that we do, in fact, love each other, however shocking the news was to myself, and I can't help but feel that we are going to be **_**so good together.**_

**Blossom: I'm going to start "acclimating" my family to Brick – I'm going to slowly get them to trust him until I can finally tell everyone that we're dating. Because I'm not quite sure how much longer I can take keeping secrets from the people I love the most. Besides, Buttercup is already super suspicious of me, and it's only a matter of time before I get ratted out, anyways.**

**This was "Previously on **_**First Dance."**_

…

Dinner was very quiet the next night, Sunday night. Everyone seemed to have quite a bit on their mind, and no one really wanted to talk. The Professor was looking back and forth between each of the girls' faces as he chewed, a bit concerned that he should probably ask if anything was wrong, but more concerned about the fact that he would probably have no idea what to say if it were something like girl problems.

Blossom cleared her throat about halfway through supper. "I'm going to have Brick over tomorrow night. For homework reasons." She quickly took a bite of mashed potatoes.

Three sets of eyes locked onto her face. Buttercup dropped her fork.

"Brick…of the Rowdyruff boys?" the Professor asked calmly.

Blossom nodded nonchalantly. "That's the one. We were partnered together for a History project, and we've got a lot of work to do before next Friday, so we figured we should get together a few times after school to speed up the progress."

Buttercup's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said you got partnered with Jennifer Tracy," she said suspiciously as she leaned down to pick up her fork.

"She switched partners," Blossom replied with a shrug. "Besides, my teacher told us we'd be far better suited together than with anybody else. Who am I to question a teacher?"

The Professor watched her for a few more moments and Blossom had to work very hard to keep her hand from shaking as she brought her water glass to her lips.

Finally he shrugged and returned to his meal. "Alright…but only because it's for homework. And you're doing everything down here in the dining room or in the living room. No going upstairs."

"Of course!" Blossom exclaimed, trying to sound offended. "We wouldn't even think of it! Besides – he's a Rowdyruff boy. We wouldn't do anything. We made a pact. Didn't we, girls?"

Bubbles choked on her vegetables and Buttercup's hand clenched tighter than it needed to around her new fork. "O-of course!" Bubbles exclaimed, and little too sincere.

"Right," Buttercup replied with a glare.

Blossom's eyes narrowed. _That was a little suspicious…I'll have to keep an eye on those two. Not that I'm completely innocent, _she added as an afterthought. _In fact, I'm probably the worst of either of them._

…

Boomer pulled away from Bubbles's lips once again with a laugh. He leaned away from her and shook his head.

"Look at that, you've got paint all over your face now," he said with a grin, reaching out to wipe it off, but he only made it worse, as he was completely covered in paint as well.

Bubbles laughed. "You aren't the cleanest person in the world right now, either, there," she replied, also trying to work at some of the paint completely covering him, head to toe.

Then they turned and looked at their work of art. Boomer wrapped an arm around her as they gazed at their project. "How was this for a first date idea?"

Bubbles leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Perfect. It was a brilliant idea."

Before them had been a plain white canvas, six feet by six feet, and they had taken several cans of paint, each tossing them at the canvas, creating interesting patterns. In the end, the two of them had been covered in probably more paint than the canvas, but they didn't mind.

"Why, thank you," Boomer replied. "I try."

Bubbles laughed and sighed, sinking down to the ground, which had received the most paint of anything.

"Is there something wrong?" Boomer asked, sinking down with her and looking at her questioningly.

Bubbles gave a small smile and shook her head. "It's just my sisters…I hate keeping you from them. But we had a conversation at dinner last night, and I just don't think they'd be too happy about this…"

Boomer watched her face for a few moments. Then he smiled. "Don't fret, little one. Everything's going to be alright. And if it's not – we'll make it alright." He tapped her nose, making her smile. "Right?"

She smiled. "Right."

"Now," he said, getting to his feet and helping her to hers. "Let's get to the school's hose and find our gym clothes before class starts again. Being covered in paint would be a difficult thing to explain to your teachers, wouldn't it?"

Bubbles grinned and followed him gladly. He was perfect.

After they had hosed off and were heading for their lockers, however, Bubbles saw something very interesting, and she stopped Boomer, placing a finger to her lips. She hid behind a staircase and watched, shocked.

…

"Phase one – complete," Blossom said, lacing her fingers with Brick's as they exited Geometry class, knowing they wouldn't cross Bubbles's or Buttercup's path on the way. The two stopped just in front of a staircase to talk without anyone really listening in.

"Oh, yeah?" Brick asked, lifting his hat to run his fingers through his hair before replacing it. "And what might phase one be?"

"You're coming over to my house to study tonight!" Blossom exclaimed excitedly. "They're letting you in. And the great thing is that I didn't even have to lie – you are coming over to study."

"To have a study _date," _Brick added.

Blossom thought she heard a gasp, but she just ignored it.

"Right," she replied with a smile. "And then on to phase two – break the news to everyone."

Brick grimaced. "That's going to be work. Let's just focus on phase one for now, shall we?"

Blossom grinned as Brick took her hand in his. "Okay."

Then they left, headed for their next class.

Bubbles, however, wasn't so sure she'd be able to attend her next class.

"You might want to close that mouth of yours, dollface," Boomer said, tapping her chin so her jaw snapped shut. "Wouldn't want to catch any flies." But his face was solemn.

"_Did you hear that?" _she exclaimed in a whisper. _"They're _dating!"

Boomer hugged her close. "And so are we. Don't be too angry with her, pigeon – we're just as guilty as hiding our relationship as they are."

"But – but she – last night at supper she was –"

"Just trying to keep her secret, I'm assuming," Boomer said, smiling gently and brushing his hand, laced with hers, across her face. "Face it, sweetheart. We're only being hypocritical if we get angry with them."

"But what should we do?" Bubbles demanded. She hated to admit it – she was hurt by Blossom's secret relationship, even if she was just as guilty.

"Wait for everything to play out," Boomer replied. "It's all we can do. But right now," he said as he pulled away from Bubbles, "we need to get those gym clothes. We're already going to be late as heck to Algebra."

Bubbles grinned and nodded, allowing Boomer to drag her to her locker.

…

Butch wasn't in any of his classes the first half of the day. At lunch, Buttercup went outside to her usual tree and sat down, leaning against the large trunk, letting her eyes shut as she felt her skin soaking in the sun.

When someone stepped in front of her light, she prepared a witty comment, but all was forgotten when she opened her eyes and saw a large body looming in front of her, its face expressionless.

"Butch –" Buttercup whispered, her heart stopped. Such girly feelings for such a tomboy…

"Shut up," Butch snapped, sitting down next to her. "I don't want to hear and frigging apologies, you got that? I thought about it after I left last night, and –" He cut off and placed his head in his hands, as if he were so angry he feared he might explode. "I just – you know I don't have – I can't control myself. That's just what I got out of the three of us. Brick got the leadership skills, Boomer got the brains, however dumb he might seem, and I got the inability to control _anything_, even if I want to. And I don't care what anyone else thinks, I –" He tugged at his hair again, refusing to look at Buttercup. "I frigging love you, and I don't care. I've never…felt like this before, and I don't want you to leave or ignore me because I was an idiot or a jerk or a moron or –"

This time, it wasn't his hair-tugging that cut him off – it was Buttercup's lips.

"Shut up," she said, staring him directly in the eyes as she kneeled in between his legs, her hands gripping his collar. "Quit selling yourself short. Sure, you lack control. But you've got the _strength _to do everything else. You think it's easy to tell people how you feel, especially when you're, you know, _you? _That's frigging admirable. I don't care what anyone else says, either." She swallowed. "I love you, too. You got that?"

Butch grinned. "I don't think I do. Why don't you clear up what you're saying, there…"

Buttercup grinned as well and smashed her lips onto his, eliciting a happy groan from deep in his throat.

"_Man, _am I glad I decided not to be an idiot," Butch said when Buttercup pulled away.

Buttercup moved off of his lap and grinned again. "Yeah. Me too."

…

"_Will the Rowdyruff boys please report to the lab; I repeat, will the Rowdyruff boys please report to the lab."_

Each of the boys jumped at least a foot in the air. Brick and Butch both dropped their video game controllers and Boomer's pencil flew from his fingers. They each looked at each other before quickly getting up from their positions and heading straight to where they knew Mojo Jojo's lab to be. As they approached, the large, white, metal doors slid open for them to enter, which they did, however tentatively.

They were facing several very large television screens, in front of which was a very large swivel chair. As they stood, wondering what the heck the Jojo had planned for them, the swivel chair spun around. As it spun, it's owner chuckled low in his throat.

"Good…good…you came…"

"Uh…yeah," Brick answered after looks from his brothers. He _was _the leader, after all. "And…what are we – uh – doin' here, exactly?"

"I have a mission for you," the Jojo replied, leaning far back in his chair as he eyed his "sons."

Brick smirked and crossed his arms. He could sense his brothers doing the exact same thing on either side of him. "A mission, eh? Well, the thing is, we're not into doing work for others anymore, are we, boys?"

They shook their heads in complete unison.

The Jojo smirked. "I thought you might say that. Which is why I invented _this."_

He raised his hand. At the centre of his gloved, monkey palm was a small metal box with a large button on top, striped red, blue, and green.

"Would you like to see what will happen to you if you defy me?" He asked mischievously.

After seeking confirmation from his brothers, who only shrugged, Brick nodded. He smirked. "What could you possibly do to us? Bring it on, Jojo."

His grin deepened and he raised one white gloved hand and brought his finger down on the button.

The clicking from the button was the last thing Brick remembered before there was a sudden, excruciating pain behind his eyes, and he passed out almost instantaneously.

…

Brick, Boomer and Butch all woke up at the same moment. Brick brought a hand to his head.

"What did you do to us?" He asked groggily as he forced himself to sit up.

"I gave your DNA a direct shock," Mojo Jojo said evilly. "And each time I click this button, the pain will get more excruciating and last for a longer amount of time. Fortunately for you, I can only click the button once a day. Unfortunately for you, after five clicks, the shock will kill you."

Brick's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He jumped to his feet. "That's not fair!"

"Oh, but it is," Mojo Jojo said, grinning. "Because, you see, I am your creator, and you were created for one purpose and one purpose only – to destroy the Powerpuff Girls. And that's what you're going to do for me. Or else…" He placed a finger slowly over the button.

Brick's hand shot out. "No!" He clenched his fist and his eyes shut, tight. "Don't. We'll…we'll do it."

"You can, but I'd rather die than lose Bubbles!" Boomer exclaimed. He got to his feet and looked at the Jojo carelessly. "I love her."

Mojo Jojo couldn't hide his shock. "What?"

"And I love Buttercup," Butch said through clenched teeth also standing.

Brick stood last. "And I love Blossom. Get yourself different assassins. We refuse."

"You can't refuse!" Mojo Jojo exclaimed. He clicked the button repeatedly, but, of course, nothing happened, as he could only press it once a day to cause a reaction. "I'm threatening you! You will die if you refuse me! Do you want to die?"

"We'd rather die than lose the Powerpuff girls," Brick said firmly. "Get yourself some new killers."

They exited, despite Mojo Jojo's angry yelling.

They gathered in Brick's bedroom.

"What are we going to do?" Boomer asked. "I mean, I love Bubbles – sorry for keeping it a secret... – but I still don't want to die."

"First thing's first," Brick said, moving around his room and jamming things in his backpack, "we're moving out. Pack whatever you can and meet me outside."

They were out of the house in ten minutes, max. It wasn't like they had a lot of belongings, anyways.

"Now what?" Asked Butch.

"We go to Blossom," Brick said, sliding his backpack on his shoulders. "She's really smart and her dad is a professor or a scientist or something."

"He invented this pin that can heal them instantly!" Boomer said. "I saw Blossom use it on Bubbles after that Mitch bastard hit her. If he can invent something like that, he can invent anything."

"There's just the problem of getting on his good side after trying to murder his daughters for so long," Butch stated as they began walking to the Powerpuff Girls home.

"He created children that fight crime," Brick pointed out. "He's got to be a good guy. I'll bet he won't turn us away. And – we're all dating a Powerpuff girl, right?"

The others nodded. "If they gang up on him, there's no way he'll turn us away."

They hoped this plan would work.

…

"Okay, Brick's going to be here any minute," Blossom said. "Try not to be too mean to him, okay girls? He's just here to do homework."

"Yeah, yeah," Buttercup mumbled from her seat on the couch, where she was playing a very violent videogame.

"No promises!" Bubbles said from where she was stretched awkwardly across a recliner, flipping through a magazine.

Blossom sighed. She had tried to convince them to stay up in the bedroom, but they had refused. They'd decided that they needed to "supervise."

When the doorbell rang, Blossom jumped to her feet a little too quickly. Shaking her head at herself, she straightened her skirt and walked to the door, plastering a huge smile on her face as she pulled the door open.

It fell off her face at the sight before her. She looked back inside quickly before stepping onto the porch and shutting the door. She didn't care that the other boys were there – she touched Brick's face lightly.

"What happened to you?" she whispered. "You're so pale…you look as if you've seen a ghost."

Brick smiled lightly and placed his hand over Blossom's. "In four days, I'm about as good as a ghost."

Her eyebrows narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"The Jojo is going to kill us," Brick said. "You're our only hope. Can you help us?"

Blossom's jaw dropped. She looked at the other two boys, who only looked back at her solemnly.

"_How?"_

"You know that pin you have that instantly heals using your DNA and what the Professor used to create you?" Boomer asked.

Blossom nodded, her mouth dry.

"It works sort of like that, only in reverse," he continued. "I'm only guessing, but I'm assuming that it just sort of sucks the life out of us every time he presses it."

"Why is he doing this to you?" Blossom demanded fiercely.

"He wanted us to kill you," Brick replied. He shook his head. "We couldn't do that. I love you…Butch loves Buttercup…Boomer loves Bubbles…we just couldn't do it."

"Butch and Boomer…are you guys dating my sisters?" Blossom asked. She shook her head. "Sorry, this isn't the time for interrogation. Come inside. We'll get this all figured out. Don't worry. Everything will be just fine."

…

**Here's chapter 8! I hope you liked it! ^^ It's getting pretty intense here. ^^**

**So we're like almost to the season finale, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be a second season, and maybe even a third. Review and tell me if it's worth it! ^^ I love you guys!**


	9. Only Hope

**Previously on First Dance:**

**Blossom: We all know that each other has been dating a Rowdyruff boy, but none of that matters anymore, because Mojo Jojo is going to kill them, and we're their only hope.**

**Boomer: Using technology similar to that of Professor Utonium's healing pin, Mojo Jojo will suck the life out of us little by little over the next four days until we are completely dead.**

**Brick: I don't care if I die. If it's to save the Powerpuff Girls, then I'd do anything.**

**This was "Previously on First Dance."**

…

Professor Utonium had listened calmly through the entire explanation with his eyes trained intensely on Brick, who had been doing most of the explaining. The girls were standing with their fingers crossed behind their backs for good luck as they listened to the explanation and waited for the Professor's reaction.

"There may be a way to save you…" the Professor said. "But I do have a question."

Brick nodded. "Anything."

"Why would you come to the girls for help? Your enemies?" His voice was getting louder.

"If I may, sir," Brick said, "I love your daughter, Blossom. And I'm pretty sure that Boomer loves Bubbles and Brick loves Buttercup. We're sorry for keeping it from you, but we weren't sure how you might react."

The Professor's face was smiling and wide-eyed, sort of like a crazy person, and the Rowdyruff boys could almost hear the muscles and bones in his neck squeaking as he turned to look at the girls.

"Girls…" he said, his mouth barely moving, his eyes unblinking. "Care to explain?"

"Professor, I know you're shocked and probably a little bit angry," Blossom said, rushing into the room and placing her hands on his shoulder, "but can we do the interrogation later, please? They don't have much time and…we love them back, and we'd be crushed if they died. I don't think I'd be able to stand it if they died. Could you…do you think you'd be able to save them?"

The Professor stared at her a few seconds more before the look dropped from his face and he shook his head at himself. "Yes, I believe there is a way to save them. But it's going to take time. Several weeks…"

"_Weeks?" _The girls exclaimed.

"Professor, they don't have weeks!" Bubbles cried.

"They don't have _one _week!" Buttercup added.

"Isn't there another way?" Blossom plead.

"Well, I suppose I could ramp it up…" he replied. "But it will consume the majority of my time, and I'll have to put aside everything else…"

"You know we wouldn't ask you unless it was of the utmost importance," Blossom replied, kneeling in front of him with her hands folded in front of her chin. "Please?"

The Professor sighed. "I'll get on it right now. I'll need you boys to come with me for a few minutes, though."

They widened their eyes in alarm, but the Professor chuckled. "Not for an interrogation. I'll need to run a few tests before I can start the production." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Well, maybe a little interrogation."

They nodded and followed the Professor towards his lab, leaving the girls in the living room.

"We'll set up the guest bedroom for you," Blossom called after them. Then she turned to her sisters. "I think we've all got some explaining to do."

"I'm sorry I kept this from you," Blossom said, hanging her head. "And…I already knew you and Brick were together."

Blossom's eyes widened. "You _knew? _For how long?"

"Since this morning," Bubbles replied. "I overheard you guys talking in the hallway after your geometry class."

"What were you doing in that hallway?" Blossom asked suspiciously.

Bubbles put up her hands in defence. "I was heading to class! We had art outside today."

"I was already really suspicious of you," Buttercup cut in. "You've been acting really strange lately, and when you mentioned Brick and fake History projects with someone who's not even in your History class, I knew something was up."

Blossom sighed. "I never was a very good liar."

Bubbles smiled softly. "No, you weren't. But we had no right to lie to each other, especially after we made that pact."

"Hey, if it makes me look any better, Butch initiated everything," Buttercup said.

"Boomer started it up with me as well," Bubbles said, nodding.

Blossom smiled. "Brick, too."

The girls shook their heads, thinking about their own respective boyfriend. Then they picked up a backpack and headed up for the guest bedroom, just beside the Professor's room. They set up the triple bunk and then returned to the kitchen to begin preparing supper for the Professor and the Rowdyruff boys.

…

The Professor stayed behind in the lab after he was done taking blood samples and interviewing them each, and the boys followed their noses to the kitchen, where the girls were setting the table.

Blossom looked up from where she was folding a placemat and smiled at them. "You hungry?"

They sat down in reply, and Blossom laughed. "Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes."

Bubbles brought in two fixed plates, Buttercup two more, and Blossom returned to the kitchen to come back with two more. The boys ate as if they had never eaten before, and were through seconds and thirds in minutes.

They finally sighed and leaned back in their chairs, ready for bed. A glance at the clock revealed that it was almost ten o'clock, so the girls decided to give the boys a quick tour of the house before bed.

"And here's your bedroom," Blossom said, stopping to open the door for them. "You can fight it out over who gets which bunk, if it matters, and we're in that room just down the hall if you need anything. The Professor's bedroom is right next to yours but, from the looks of it, he's not going to be out of the lab all too often, so you're safe from him."

Brick nodded. "Thanks for everything you're doing. We really appreciate it. Do you…want to go for a walk or something?"

Blossom smiled and took his hand in hers. "Sure. I'd like that."

"Want to go play video games and wait up for them?" Buttercup asked, turning to Butch.

He smirked. "Sure. Winner of the game gets a kiss."

"You're on," Buttercup replied, and the two raced down the stairs.

When the others had gone, Bubbles turned to Boomer. "Want to see our bedroom?"

Boomer smiled. "Sure. Lead the way."

Bubbles took his hand and lead him down the hall and into her and her sisters' bedroom.

"Nice," He said, looking around. "Is that your bed?"

Bubbles nodded. "What gave it away?" she asked sarcastically, eyeing the paintings she kept hanging around her bed and the coffee mug filled with pencils and paintbrushes. Beside Blossom's bed was a pile of books and beside Buttercup's bed was only a slightly-cracked alarm clock.

Boomer shrugged and headed over to her bed. He took a seat and pulled her favourite pillow into his lap as he looked around.

"Did you paint these?" He asked, reaching out to run his fingers along the frame of a portrait of a little girl seated in front of a tree, her legs pulled up to her chest, her eyes wide.

Bubbles nodded and sat down on Blossom's bed, facing him.

"Is that Buttercup?"

Bubbles nodded again with a smile and a soft chuckle. "Yeah. We were only eight. She hated sitting still."

"I can see how she would hate that," Boomer nodded. "These are really good. You could paint like this at eight years old?"

Bubbles shrugged. "We were all really talented. Blossom was in college level classes by then, and Buttercup had mastered ever form of martial arts. I didn't get anything very useful, but it sure is fun."

"That's how I was," Boomer replied. "Brick is a great leader and Butch is so strong. I was always kind of the stupid one with no place in the stealing and thievery. I just wasn't cut out for the Rowdyruff boys. But they include me because I'm their brother."

"You're not stupid, Boomer," Bubbles said, crossing to sit beside him on the bed. "And you're very talented. Better than me, even. I'm more of a writer, anyway. But you…you're an artist. You can do things your brothers can't do."

He shrugged. "So I can hold a paintbrush. That's not going to do much of anything."

She shook her head. "That's not true. I mean…you're drawing of me got me from the start. And you sure know how to catch a girl's attention."

He grinned and ran his hand through his hair. "Sure."

"And you're…you don't do that stealing and thievery anymore, do you?"

He shook his head. "Haven't for years. I can't say the same for the others, but that's their choice."

"I guess." Bubbles shrugged.

Boomer looked at her sideways. "Does that bother you?"

She shrugged again. "Well, yeah. I don't want my sisters pulled into anything like that."

"They won't hurt them, Bubbles," Boomer said. His eyes were sincere when she looked at him. "And neither will I."

Bubbles smiled. "I know they won't. I don't even know why I'm worried. They love each other."

Boomer smiled back. "And you know what? I love you."

Bubbles, still smiling, tilted her head to the side and crinkled her nose. "I know."

Boomer kissed her lightly.

"Now. You say you're more of a writer. Care to prove it?"

…

"I don't want to go anywhere the Jojo could find us," Brick said as they crossed the Utoniums' lawn and they headed in the opposite direction of town.

"Does that mean you're not coming back to school?" Blossom frowned.

Brick shook his head. "No. Way too risky. I'd much rather skip out until the Professor can fix us and we're safe from that creep."

"Do you really hate him?" Blossom asked. "I mean, he did create you."

"Doesn't mean I have to like him," Brick replied. "Face it – Mojo Jojo is completely evil. You know that. All he wants is for the rest of the world to be evil like him. Especially us. And I'm not so sure I _want _to be evil."

"I see…" Blossom replied, nodding. "Well, if you're going to be skipping out on school, then I want to stay home with you."

Brick shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous. I won't have you jeopardising your education for me. You should go to school."

Blossom sighed. "But you won't be there."

Brick smiled and stopped walking. They were closing in on a small forest. "But I'll be waiting for you at home. It'll all be okay." He kissed her forehead. "I promise."

"I think…" Blossom said, blushing. "I think I need more reassurance."

"Oh, do you?" Brick replied with a smirk. "Here, let me give it to you." He leaned down and kissed her deeply on the mouth, and Blossom was thoroughly reassured.

…

"I'm so totally going to kick your butt!" Buttercup exclaimed as she pressed all sorts of crazy combinations on her game controller.

Butch's eyes were wide. "I've been playing this game for three years and I've never seen anyone do that. Where did you learn those tricks?"

"You haven't seen nothing yet," Buttercup replied and, for some reason, Butch thought he caught a sly tone to her voice and his eyes darkened excitedly.

"Oh, I haven't?" he replied.

"Not at all," Buttercup replied, completely unaware that he was inching ever so slowly closer to her. "I'm going to beat you so bad your ego will hurt for weeks!"

Butch grinned and, without any warning, he claimed her lips with his, his eyes still on the screen and his hands still fumbling with the controller, while she simply dropped hers.

Butch didn't pull his mouth from hers until he crossed the finish line and he felt the need to exclaim in triumph.

Buttercup's jaw dropped. She jumped to her feet. "You cheated!"

"Hey, all's fair in love and war," Butch said, leaning back and stretching his arms across the back of the sofa. Buttercup glared and crossed her arms, looking away from him, and a pout clear on her face.

"Aw, c'mon, Babe," Butch said. "Don't be mad. I only did it for the prize."

Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Is that why?"

"Sure!" He exclaimed, not quite catching her sarcasm. "Who wouldn't with such an awesome prize?"

Buttercup shook her head. "Well, you cheated, so you're disqualified. No prize for you."

"C'mon, Babe," he repeated, reaching out for her, but she moved quickly, grabbing his arm and flipping him onto the floor, where she kneeled on top of him, one leg on either side of his hips, her hands keeping his arms pinned to the ground.

"I believe _you _owe _me _the prize, since you're a cheater and all."

"Is that how it works?" Butch asked darkly.

Buttercup smirked. "That's how it works."

"And if I refuse?"

"If you refuse…" Buttercup said, lowering her face closer to his. "…then I'm going to – "

"Buttercup!"

Buttercup flew so high into the air in surprise that she smacked her head on the ceiling. Rubbing her head and wincing, she glared at her sister, standing in the door, her face flushed and her hand in Brick's. Hypocrite.

"We'll be having none of that here!" Blossom exclaimed. "It's almost midnight, get to bed. We have school in the morning."

Buttercup made a face and continued to glare. "We do not; it's Saturday." But when she looked back down at Butch, who was still lying on the floor, she lowered her lashes and said, "I'm looking forward to that prize," and she passed him and strutted up the stairs to her bedroom.

Brick snorted at the image of his brother's love-struck face as he lay on the floor between the couch and the coffee-table.

"Comfortable there, bro?" he asked as he stepped into the room, still holding Blossom's hand, the other in his pocket.

"Nuh-uh," Butch replied in a strange, uncharacteristically dreamy voice. "Game controller under my ass. But that's okay."

Brick rolled his eyes. He looked over at Blossom to find her face was almost completely unreadable, but he sensed she was uncomfortable being in the same room as his wild, rambunctious, impulsive brother. So he took charge. Releasing Blossom's hand, he helped his brother to his feet and patted him on the shoulder. "Head on up to bed, bro. And actually go to our room. Okay?"

"Yessir," Butch replied with a mock-salute, still a little bit dazed.

After he was gone, Brick turned back to Blossom. "He won't hurt you, you know. We made a pact to never hurt each other's' girlfriends."

Blossom shook her head. "I know. I'm not scared. I know you won't let anyone hurt me."

Brick smiled and took her hand back in his. "Never. So you want to go upstairs to bed?"

Blossom nodded. "Yeah. Today was a really long day. I'm beat."

They headed up the stairs and parted with a kiss.

"Thanks again for doing all of this," Brick said.

Blossom smiled. "Don't mention it. I love you."

"I love you, too," he replied as he brushed his hand across her cheek. "Sweet dreams."

She grinned at him once before turning to her room, where Buttercup was in the bathroom and Boomer and Bubbles were asleep on her bed, still in their clothes and on top of the comforter and a pile of papers. Blossom was about to object, but she just shook her head, kicked off her shoes, and crawled into bed still in her clothes, too tired to undress. She was asleep within minutes, her "sweet dreams" all of Brick.

…

**Just 300 short of 3,000! Darn it! Oh, well. A lot happened.**

**Let me know what you thought! With these stupid new properties to fanfiction, reviews mean everything. Without them, your stories will never be noticed, since you can choose the reviews range. -_- So please leave me a thought! And if you want, I'll read your story and review as well! All you have to do is ask! ^^**

**But I genuinely hope you enjoyed the story, and I just love hearing from you. Let me know if you want a second season after this is complete!**

**PEACE OUT.**


	10. What About the Future?

**Hello, everyone! Before I start, I'd like to respond to a very kind anonymous reviewer.**

**UrBiggestFan:**

**I'm so glad you're enjoying my story! No, it's not quite over yet.**

**It's not rude; no, I'm not from England. Sadly, I live in Wisconsin. But I work very hard on my grammar and I've been perfecting my writing style since I was little, and for some reason adding the extra "u" to words just seemed right. :)**

**I'm not very good at writing inappropriate things, so there probably won't be much of that in there (sorry to anyone who was looking for that...).**

**Well, I'm glad you like it and I hope you enjoy my other stories! I love A:TLA, too. ^^**

…

_**Previously on "First Dance"**_

**Blossom: Looks like everything's going to be alright. The Professor knows just the cure and is currently working on the production. We'll just have to see how it goes.**

_**This was "Previously on First Dance"**_

…

Bubbles rolled over and would have stayed asleep if not for two very strange things making her quite curious – the first was that her bed crinkled, and the second was that there appeared to be someone else dwelling in bed with her that morning.

The latter observation caused her to sit upright in bed so fast that she nearly fell off.

Her heart rate slowed, however, when she found it was only Boomer, still sleeping peacefully atop the pages and pages of literary work they had been scouring the night before. It made Bubbles feel good to know that Boomer had enjoyed her work as thoroughly as she enjoyed his paintings.

Bubbles looked around the room – both of her sisters were gone. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was already 10:30 – Blossom woke up at seven, even on weekends, and Buttercup went for a run on Saturday mornings, so it was no surprise to find them gone. What surprised her was that no one had woken her up. She usually would have been woken by eight, served breakfast and would have had a plan laid out for her for the day.

So far, nothing of the sort appeared to have happened.

With a sigh, she realised the Professor must have been busy with his experiment and her sisters must have been busy with their boyfriends, leaving her to fend for herself. With a smile, though, she thought, _"At least I have Boomer."_

She smiled as she turned to her slumbering boyfriend and moved a lock of hair from his face. Then she stood and removed all of the papers gently from her bed and set them aside on her nightstand. Just before she headed into the bathroom, Bubbles pulled a blanket over Boomer and tucked him in neatly.

Then she headed to the bathroom. She set her music very low and turned on the shower. She pulled out the bands holding her hair in pigtails and ran her hair under the stream of steaming water.

When she got out she got dressed and made extra sure that she looked and smelled beautiful.

Just as she was stepping out of the bathroom, Boomer was waking up. He had his legs thrown over the side of the bed and was scratching the back of his head as he yawned. When he spotted her, he grinned lazily.

"Hey," he mumbled sleepily. "Sleep well?"

Bubbles moved across the room and took a seat beside Boomer, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek. "Very," she said softly against his cheek. "And you?"

He shrugged. "Pretty good. It's always nice to have a pretty girl with you. Especially one as pretty as you."

Bubbles smiled and pecked him on the cheek. "Hungry?" she asked, standing. "I don't know where everyone went, but I can cook you breakfast, if you'd like."

"You're too good, Bubbles," Boomer said, standing as well. "I'd love breakfast."

"Great," Bubbles said, grinning. "You can use the shower if you need it. I'll be downstairs."

Just before Bubbles could leave the room, Boomer reached around her and closed the door, a hand on either side of her head. Bubbles, startled, turned her head to look at Boomer.

"Boomer?" She questioned.

"Really," he said. "You're too good. Let me make you breakfast."

"Well, I – "

Boomer kissed the nape of her neck gently. "It's okay, I don't mind. And besides – I'm an excellent cook."

"Well…if you insist…"

…

A while later the two were in the kitchen, having passed Buttercup and Butch passed out on the sofa along the way. Blossom and Brick were still nowhere to be found, and the Professor was still in the lab.

"So, what's on the menu today, Chef Boomer?" Bubbles asked, coming up behind him as he stood over the stove.

He said something French, then turned to her with a grin. "Omelettes."

"Mmm…" she hummed, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning over his shoulder. "Sounds good."

"What do you like in yours?" he asked, his eyes trained on the stove.

"Just veggies," Bubbles replied, backing away to lean against the counter.

Boomer cocked an eyebrow. "Are you a vegetarian?"

"If you could talk to animals, you would be, too," Bubbles replied with a grimace. "I tried it for a while; I know it's the circle of life or whatever, but I feel guilty anyways. Mainly because I'm friends with them. I don't mind that other people aren't vegetarians, of course."

Boomer grinned. "Good. Because I wouldn't ever become a vegetarian. Or a vegan. Too much work."

…

Buttercup awoke not two hours after she fell asleep to the creaking of her bed and the knowledge that there was most definitely another presence in her bed. Her eyes flew open wide and her hands shot out in front of her – there was a body looming over her, one knee on either side of her waist. And whoever it was was _fast – _they managed to catch her wrists before she could punch them off of her.

"Calm down, babe." It was Butch, talking very quietly in her ear. "How's about you and me settle the topic of a prize for our little game earlier?"

Buttercup grinned and sat up, causing Butch to need to back up. She threw her feet over the side of the bed and took Butch's hand, pulling him swiftly out of the room. They headed downstairs, where it was completely quiet, and Buttercup pushed Butch roughly onto the sofa. He landed with a grunt and looked up with a snarl. He pulled Buttercup down and on top of him, and she brought their faces close. _"You _give _me _the prize," she whispered. _"Cheater."_

Butch had them flipped around in an instant, kneeling over her similar to the way he had been earlier when they were in Buttercup's bed. _"'sat right?"_

Buttercup only nodded. Before she could give a verbal reply, though, Butch's mouth had claimed hers roughly. Too soon he pulled away, but Buttercup only pulled him right back.

"It's my prize," she whispered against his lips. "You'll stay here until I'm finished with you."

Butch swallowed hard, hoping he'd be able to control himself. He liked her too much to get too excited and scare her away.

They were at it for nearly a half an hour before they began slowing own.

Butch pulled away from Buttercup, his breathing ragged. He pushed her hair away from her face and gave her a grin. "You tired?"

She nodded. He moved to get off of her, but she hugged him close. "Stay here," she whispered.

Butch rolled over so he was beside her and pulled her tight so they could both fit, albeit awkwardly, so they could both fit on the couch. Soon enough, they were both fast asleep.

…

"Brick?"

Brick shot awake at the whisper and looked around the room groggily. He ran his fingers through his hair as his eyes adjusted to the light – there was no one else in the room. At least as far as his brothers. It was possible that there might be someone else in here, and if he needed to fight, he'd need to wake up more. It was difficult – he had just woken up from a dream about Blossom, and it was always difficult to get up right out of a dream.

"Who's there?" he finally whispered, squinting in the dark.

"Blossom," the voice replied, and Brick could see her standing in the doorway.

"Oh, come on over," Brick said quietly, waving her over.

Blossom did as he said and walked towards the bed, taking a seat beside him.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, concerned.

She was frowning and her brow was furrowed. "After we fix you and Mojo is in jail…are you going back to his lair?"

Brick was surprised – he didn't know there was even a doubt that he and his brothers were staying far away from there.

"Of course not," Brick assured. "Why would you think that?"

Blossom shrugged. "Not sure. I was just thinking…"

Brick smirked. "You do that far too often."

She smiled and shrugged again. "I just…I just want you to be safe, that's all. Where are you going to go? Are you going to go back to school?"

"I haven't really thought about it yet…" Brick replied. He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I'll drop out. Get a job; find an apartment for my brothers and me. It'll all be fine."

"But – you can't drop out!" Blossom exclaimed, suddenly vehement. "You're so smart – you deserve an education."

He shook his head. "It's not like I've got a lot of options, here, Red," he said sadly.

"You can stay with us!" Blossom said, grasping Brick's arm. "You can get a part-time job. You can help in the lab with the Professor to pay for your staying here. But you can't drop out of school. You'll ruin your life. Please…"

Brick squinted at her. "Why do you care so much about if I ruin _my _life?"

"Because I…" she blushed as red as her hair clip. "Well, I know we're still very young and there's no telling what's going to happen to us in the next handful of years, but… I would like it if you were in _my _life. And I'd rather not have that life ruined."

Brick smiled and kissed her forehead.

"Alright," he said. "Just for you I'll stay in school and I'll accept your invitation to stay here. I won't ruin our lives."

Blossom gave a sigh of relief. "Good. Now maybe I can fall asleep."

She reached over to hug Brick. When his mouth was right beside her ear, he spoke.

"Why don't you stay in here with me tonight? I'll help you sleep."

Her eyes widened and she pulled back to look Brick in the face, to try and decide what he was thinking.

Brick chuckled. "It's all we'll do is sleep." He placed a hand over his heart. "Promise."

"Well…I don't know…" Blossom replied uncertainly, looking anywhere but at Brick.

"Come on, dollface," Brick said quietly, smiling softly. "I'll even sleep on top of the blankets. I'll use Butch's. Please?"

She was going to wonder aloud as to the whereabouts of his brothers, but then she made the mistake of looking Brick in the eyes and she forgot what she had meant to say.

She only sighed. "Okay. I'll stay."

Brick cheered internally. On the outside, he pulled aside the covers so Blossom could climb beneath them, and then he tucked her in. He ripped the comforter from Butch's second level bunk and sidled up next to his girlfriend, draping his brother's comforter over the top of himself. He turned to give Blossom a kiss on the cheek, and she sighed.

"Sweet dreams," Brick said with a soft smile and a wink.

Blossom blushed again and returned the smile. "Good night."

…

Saturday passed by pleasantly. It was raining outside, so they were unable to leave the house and the football game Buttercup was supposed to participate in and Bubbles was meant to cheer for was cancelled and rescheduled for the following weekend. They stayed indoors, playing board and video games, telling stories and having a wonderful time.

They brought the Professor meals at each appropriate time, but he barely had time to eat, let alone speak. The progress on his project was going well from what they could tell, and they hoped everything would work out.

They received quite a big scare, however, when supper time was approaching, and each of the boys collapsed instantaneously as they were heading to the kitchen.

The girls were stunned momentarily before Blossom came to her senses and they decided to take the boys into their bedrooms, where they woke almost three hours later, after the girls had already eaten, albeit a small amount, as worry had filled their stomachs, leaving no room for supper.

"Brick?" Blossom said slowly when she saw his eyes begin to flicker. She squeezed the hand he was holding and smiled at him as he awoke. As he came to his senses, he smiled as well.

Bubbles reaction was a bit different in that she tackled Boomer with a hug when she saw he was beginning to come to, and Buttercup was even more dissimilar, as she automatically demanded to know what had just happened.

"Mojo must have hit the button," Brick said, sitting up and rubbing his head.

Boomer did the same thing, smiling at Bubbles as she grabbed an elbow to help hoist him up. "We've got tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday before we're done for."

Bubbles shook her head. "No way. That's not going to happen. The Professor is going to cure you."

He smiled and kissed her cheek. "I know."

She was lost for a moment, gazing dreamily at nothing in particular, before she realised something.

She jumped to her feet. "You must be starving! I'll be right back with your supper!"

She dashed out of the room, quickly followed by Buttercup and Blossom, who were a little more graceful and dignified.

They slept well that night, and the girls didn't interrupt. They woke up late Sunday morning, and it continued to rain.

The girls received a call shortly after lunch.

"Hello – Mayor?" Blossom said as she put the phone to her ear. "What's the problem?"

She nodded as she listened to what he had to say.

"We're on it," she said firmly at last, slamming the phone back onto the receiver. "Come on, girls. The Gangreen Gang is at it."

Buttercup swallowed hard and Butch gave her a look.

"I'm coming with," Butch said determinedly, standing.

"No!" Buttercup exclaimed. "You'll get hurt."

"Girls, we have to go _now," _Blossom said impatiently.

Butch rolled his eyes. "Come _on," _he said irritably. "How many times did we kick your butt? Wouldn't that mean that we could _easily_ destroy these guys?"

"This isn't up for discussion!" Blossom cried out. "We have to _leave!"_

"But what happens if you collapse?" Buttercup asked. "Trust me on this one, Butch. Please."

"That's _it!" _Blossom shrieked. _"I'm _going to go save the day while you stay here and _bicker."_

She took off, shortly followed by Bubbles.

Buttercup gave Butch a harsh glare. "We'll talk about this when I get back. Don't you _dare _try and follow me. You understand?"

And she left.

"You're going after her, aren't you?" Boomer said over the pages of the book his nose was buried in.

Butch smirked. "Would I be me if I didn't?"

"Maybe you should reconsider," Brick said. "Stay. They're right. What happens if we pass out? Face it – we're useless right now. After the Professor has us cured we can go off and fight crime all we want. But for now, we have to stay."

Butch glared, and he looked like he might protest for a moment, but then he took a seat and picked up a game controller.

"I hate this."

"I know," Brick said consolingly. "So do I. But we'll be fine in a couple of days. And then we'll go from there."

"Speaking of which," Boomer said, putting down his book. "What is this I hear about us staying here and getting part time jobs? Blossom told me. When were you planning on telling us this, _leader?"_

"What?" Butch snapped.

"What's with the attitude?" Brick replied, annoyed. "I am the leader, am I not? What I say goes, even if you don't agree. Besides, it's what's best for us."

Boomer's eyes narrowed. "What's best for us or what's best for _your _relationship?"

Brick glared. "A little bit of both, but not just _my _relationship. _Our _relationships. They'll only be more worried if we have to go off and fend for ourselves again. And Blossom won't take no for an answer – it's education or…I don't know what, but I'd rather just not ask."

Boomer rolled his eyes. "I still think we should have a say in this."

"What, you don't want to stay?" Brick asked, throwing his hands out. "Then by all means, leave. I'll stay here and you can go get your own job and an apartment and hope your lousy paintings are enough to live off of without a proper education."

Boomer glared, but he was used to these types of put-downs by now. He knew Brick didn't mean it – he always apologised afterwards. "You know that's not what I mean," Boomer said, standing with his book in his hand. "We'll stay. But from now on, I'd really appreciate it if you confided your ideas in us instead of just going with whatever _you _feel is best. We may have other ideas. Useful ideas."

Brick rolled his eyes. When he was in a mood such as this one, he was as stubborn as a mule. "Whatever you say."

Boomer headed up the stairs to his bunk, hoping he could just stay there until he passed out, so he wouldn't fall and kill himself. This was really proving to be a pain.

…

**Hi guys! Long time, no see, am I right? ^^**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave me a review if you get the chance! ^^**

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	11. Note

Some aspects of this story are similar to that of the story "Good Girls, Bad Guys" by Sabby More. Their story is superb and all credit to any similarities go to them.

In addition, anybody who asked about rated M content in my story, I reccommend her story, which _is _rated M. Nothing of that sort will be happening in my story.

Thank you everybody for reading! And I hope you go and read Sabby More's story, which is way better than mine.

DominoTyler


	12. The End of Us part 1

**Previously on "First Dance"**

_**Brick: We're down to two more days of life, but we trust the Professor.**_

_**Blossom: And I've persuaded the boys to stay with us and work for the Professor until they're done with school. It's better this way. I feel safer.**_

_**Boomer: You persuaded Brick. It would have been nice if he'd asked us our opinion before making such a major decision.**_

_**Brick: Haven't we been through this? Anyways, the girls just went off in search of the Gangreen Gang, who are, evidently, causing a bit of trouble. And, like I told Butch, we're too unstable to be flying off into the night. We're just going to have to wait until the Professor heals us before we leave the house.**_

_**Butch: Whatever. I bet I could beat those wimps even unconscious.**_

_**Buttercup: You just keep telling yourself that.**_

**This was "Previously on First Dance."**

…

A splash of pink, blue and green could be seen flashing across the sky at precisely 9:42 am that Sunday night. They were headed for Townsville Square, their mission still foggy.

"What's going on, then?" Buttercup asked when she managed to forget Butch's snarky comment and get to where she was now.

"The Gangreen Gang is apparently holding hostages in the square and demanding we show up," Blossom replied. "That's all I could get through the Mayor's yammering."

"I wonder what they want?" Bubbles asked. "I hope we can get this over quickly…this rain feels like bullets!"

"And it's freezing…" Blossom added. But she shook her head. "We'll just have to endure it. I don't want anyone killed on our account."

"Of course not," Bubbles replied quickly. "Let's just get this over with."

They swooped down into the Square they had been approaching, headed straight for the splash of green barely visible through the rain.

They stopped short of the group, who each held a struggling hostage in their arms, a gun to their heads.

Blossom took on the role of mediator. She put up her hands. "Let's see if we can talk this out."

Ace Gangreen smirked. "I'm not sure there's gonna be much room for talking. See, we've got one goal and one goal only."

"Which is?" Blossom asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We're working for Mojo now," he continued. "And he wants the Rowdyruff Boys."

"That's going to be a problem, then," Blossom said.

"That's what I reckoned."

There was a pause.

"Is there any way we can get through this without these innocent people getting injured?" Blossom finally asked.

"Not unless you cooperate," Ace replied, his smirk deepening.

"Not likely," Buttercup grumbled, and Ace smirked at her.

"No, you never were one to cooperate, were you, toots?" he said. He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Snake? Do your worst."

The tall, slender man grinned and hissed a chuckle as he brought prepared to fire right into the head of a little girl.

"No!" Bubbles screamed. "Don't!"

"I'm afraid we have no choice, sweetheart," Ace said sweetly. "Unless you were to bring the boys to us, there's nothing we can do to save these poor, innocent lives."

"You can let them go so I can kick your butt!" Buttercup shouted, her voice beyond angry.

"Wait," Blossom finally said dejectedly. "We'll bring them."

Ace grinned. "Excellent."

"What?" Buttercup and Bubbles nearly screamed together.

Blossom only nodded.

"Mr. Mojo wants them in his lair by 5 am Tuesday evening. If they aren't there, he's gonna push the button and they'll be done for."

Blossom nodded. "Understood. Now let those people go and go tell Mojo that they'll be there."

When they didn't move fast enough, Blossom snapped. "Go!"

They dropped their hostages and shot off in the direction of Mojo Jojo's lair.

After checking to make sure the hostages were okay and reporting to the mayor, they made their way back towards home.

"Are you insane?" Buttercup was currently telling Blossom off. "What's your problem? We can't just hand them over to Mojo! I thought you _loved _Brick!"

"I do love Brick!" Blossom exclaimed defensively. "And quit yelling at me! I have a plan, okay?"

Buttercup's angry look dropped. "A plan? What's your plan?"

Blossom shook her head. "Buttercup, the Professor will be finished with his cure by Tuesday afternoon. He said so himself. If that's true then we can cure them before we send them off to Mojo's, and they can take him to jail!"

"But what if he's not done in time?"

"Buttercup, if he's not done in time they're going to die either way. We're just going to have to chance it."

Buttercup sighed. "Okay. This better work."

Blossom nodded. "I know."

…

That night, they explained their plans to the boys.

Brick nodded. "You did the right thing, Blossom," he said. "Our lives are _definitely _not worth as much as the lives of those innocent people. They didn't need to die."

"And, like I said, Mojo won't be able to kill you," Blossom replied. "He doesn't know that the Professor is working on an antidote."

"Though I'm sure he suspects it," Boomer replied. "He knows what the Professor is capable of. He knows that he's probably trying to figure out how to cure us, but he probably doesn't suspect how close he actually is."

"Exactly," Blossom replied. "Now, let's not think about this. We have two more days, and I have a lot of homework I need to get done."

…

The girls went off to do their homework and the guys went to their rooms to rest, completely beat by the even more painful pass out earlier that day. They climbed into bed and were asleep in moments, each of them falling asleep one by one.

…

The next morning, each of the guys wished the girls well at school and saw them off.

School seemed extra-long for Blossom. She couldn't concentrate on _anything_ and her note held much to be desired. She just wanted to get home to make sure Brick was okay and that the Professor would have the antidote created by tomorrow. Instead of topography in geography she was drawing up maps and plans on how, if the antidote wasn't complete on time, she could burst in and destroy the button before the boys could be killed, using every angle she could think of. Instead of writing her short story for English, she wrote battle plans. She didn't raise her hand a single time.

Bubbles was completely lost the entire day. In art she painted a picture of Boomer when she was meant to be creating a still life of something in the room. In Algebra, she didn't know what to do when Mitch approached her.

"Bubbles, I'm really honestly sorry about what happened between us," he said, placing his hands on her desk and leaning in close. "What do you say we just put the past behind us and carryon like nothing ever happened? Eh?"

Bubbles had no idea how to respond, and she was only lucky the bell rang and the teacher told him to take his seat before she burst into tears or flew up and out of the ceiling to get away.

She wandered around the school aimlessly in between classes, trying to focus, but to no avail. She could barely even remember her locker combination without Boomer, and that was a scare.

Buttercup, however, was doing phenomenally in all of her classes. She was really into her welding, and she worked out harder than anyone had ever thought was possible.

Finally, the day was over, and they all sped off towards home the second the bell rang.

…

They were greeted very warmly by their respective boyfriends upon arriving at home. Butch was at the TV, playing a racing game, Brick was trying to focus on Geometry, and Boomer was working on another drawing. And, though they tried their hardest to look alright, the girls noticed something – they looked like the walking dead.

"I think it's time you guys get up to bed," Blossom said. "You don't look good at all."

"I'll be fine, dollface," Brick replied with a weary smile, leaning in to kiss her softly. "I'm just a little tired is all."

Blossom shook her head. "No, I really think you should go to sleep now. I'll bring supper up to you, but I'd really be much more comfortable if you just went to bed."

After a lot more persuasion, the boys allowed themselves to be helped up the stairs and into their beds.

After that, they couldn't even be woken up for supper.

…

School was even worse on Tuesday, as the girls knew what they were now going to be up against. They barely reacted when they got a call into the city and fought a giant purple monster with barely a thought in their heads.

After their fight with the monster, they simply headed home.

The boys were practically incapacitated by noon.

"Professor!" Blossom exclaimed, bursting into the lab. "We need the antidote. Now!"

…

**Hello, lovelies! This chapter is only 1,500 words because it's going to be split into two. It's better that way.**

**So listen. I got a job, working 4-5 almost every day. Plus school. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update, so be patient, but I **_**will**_** finish this. You can be sure about that. Besides, there's only part two of this and the epilogue left, so you can bet your behind that I'm going to finish.**

**I love you all! ^^**

**For those who have a Tumblr:**

**Follow domino-tyler-fanfiction for story updates. I promote, take submissions, and follow back as well! I also accept fanart and fanvideos for every fandom out there. Thank you!**


	13. The End of Us part 2

(In the previous chapter, I meant 5 _pm_ Tuesday evening….

Yeah…)

Here's the final instalment of _First Dance!_

…

"I'm sorry, Blossom, but it's not going to be ready for several more hours," the Professor said, shaking his head. His eyes were fixed firmly on his work as he spoke to her, the same as every other day since he'd begun his work. "I was told 5 pm, and I'm going to need until at _least _4:30."

"But the boys -!" Blossom exclaimed frantically, the remainder of her calm demeanour fleeing at once.

The Professor shook his head. "I'm sorry, Blossom. Everything is going to be okay. I just need a few more hours."

Blossom wish she could have just sighed and left it at that, but she couldn't. She was panicking. As soon as she left the lab she was pacing back and forth in the air, trying to think of alternate plans of action. They needed a plan! The boys could barely even hold their eyes open, let alone face Mojo. This couldn't be happening.

Her heart clenched. She'd had no idea what she was getting into all of that time ago when she'd agreed to start going out with her counterpart.

"Don't get yourself so worked up, Red."

Blossom spun around, her eyes focusing in on the couch. She was startled – she'd thought she'd been alone.

"What are you doing down here, Brick?" Blossom asked softly, descending slowly and taking a seat beside him on the sofa. He leaned against her and his eyes slid shut. "I thought you were upstairs?"

He shook his head. "I heard you talking to yourself and decided to come down," he said, his voice raspy and tired. "It's gonna be alright, Red. You're probably better off without me, anyways."

This made Blossom angry. "Don't be ridiculous," she snapped. "You're not going to die. I made this plan up myself. Are you doubting my plans?"

He chuckled softly. "Of course not. But even if they do fail…and I'm not saying they will…I just want you to know that you should get on without me. You'll be better off. I won't be holding you back."

"You aren't, though," Blossom said quietly, going from angry to sad in a heartbeat. "I won't. I don't think I will be better off without you, because I'm not so sure how good I'd be being separated from you."

"I love you, Red," was the only thing he said before he drifted off to sleep.

4:30 came and went, and the Professor still wasn't completed with the antidote.

But that wasn't stopping the Rowdyruff boys.

"Quit being so stupid!" Buttercup was shouting as Butch somehow managed to shake her off of his arm, despite being ¾ dead. "You're going to get yourself killed! Do you want me to have to live with that on me?"

"Dammit, woman!" Butch exclaimed. "You're making telling you I love you a lot more difficult than it needs to be!"

Bubbles, unlike Buttercup, who was yelling and Blossom, who was reasoning, was crying.

"Ple-e-ease don't go!" she said, her voice shrill and thick with tears. "I don't want you to go!"

She sounded – and looked, almost – like a five-year-old whose parents were leaving her with grandma and grandpa when they left for business. Boomer was the flustered father who was used to the mom dealing with all of this. He seemed to have no idea how to help her out, so he wrapped an arm around her and tried to tell her that he had to go, but he'd be back soon. Everything would be alright.

The boys eventually made it out the door and lethargically made their way to Mojo's home. The girls were counting on the Professor finishing the antidote in the next ten minutes. If he didn't have it done, there was nothing they could do – not even if they burst in on Mojo and beat him to a bloody pulp – he'd already hit the button. They were done for without that antidote.

…

"Well, well, well… Who do we have here? My very bad boys. You've been misbehaving. Are you ready for your punishment?"

"Do we have a choice?" Brick replied sadly. He sounded as though he'd given up. And he just about had.

Mojo grinned. "Good…good…"

…

"Girls!"

Blossom was so startled when the Professor burst out of his lab with the antidote that she nearly swallowed her tongue.

"I finished the -!"

They were gone in a flash of pink, blue and green light, the pins gone from the hands of the Professor.

"- Antidote…"

The girl flew straight through town. They were going as fast as they were able to, and even faster still. They had to make it in time…they just _had to._ If they didn't make it, not only the lives of the Rowdyruff boys would be over, but their very _own _lives would be over as well.

They were nearly there, ready to smash into the building, when they ran once again into their least favourite people.

The Gangreen Gang.

"Hello, Girls…" Ace said with his usual smirk. "You're looking a little stressed. That's too bad."

"What's that?" Blossom asked cautiously. Under normal circumstances, she would have just flown right on past the guy and left him to himself, but the big box with the purple button on top was quite a bit menacing, and with the plots Mojo had been pulling lately, she wasn't so sure she wanted to risk _anything._

"This?" Ace asked, holding the box up into the sunlight. "Oh, nothing. Just a little mass gun-shooting in a box."

The girls' hearts froze.

"What do you mean by that?" Buttercup demanded.

"I mean that with one push of this button, the lives of exactly 1,000 people will end," Ace said, his face somber. "You see, you've got a choice to make. Save the lives of three criminals? Or save the lives of 1,000 people. Police officers, fire-fighters, doctors, teachers, moms, dads, even construction workers and telemarketers. All gone. And you can save them…"

"But then we can't save the boys!" Bubbles cried out, near tears once again.

Ace's grin returned. "Smart girl."

"We're not going to let you get away with this!" Blossom said defiantly, but Buttercup let out a yelp.

"Blossom, we've only got 8 minutes until 5 o'clock!"

"Tick-tock…" said Ace.

Blossom began thinking very, very hard. There had to be a way to save all 1,003 people about to die. There had to be a way.

The only way she knew? Attack.

"Girls!" she exclaimed. A silent go – she flew at Ace so quickly that he dropped the button, falling back when her fist made contact with his face. Bubbles came next, rescuing the button before it hit the ground. Then came Buttercup, attacking with her fists, letting out all of her anger and stress into the bodies of the Gangreen Gang.

4 minutes left.

"What do I do with this button?" Bubbles asked as the stood over the unconscious bodies of the gang.

"Keep it with you for now," Blossom said breathlessly. "Come on! We have to get to the boys!"

They flew at the speed of light, crashing through the window.

Too late.

The boys were on the floor, eyes closed. Were they breathing? They couldn't tell. But did it matter? They must have been dead.

"But we still have 2 whole minutes!" Buttercup cried. "I thought that…"

"You have thought wrong, little girl," came a quick voice. Mojo. "The boys were willing to die when I told them that a push of this button," here he raised a button similar to the one in Bubbles' hands, "the three people most important to them would be dead. And I promised them that if they were to give themselves up, then you would be spared." Here, he smiled a large, creepy smile. "But you know what? I lied."

And he brought his hand down on the button.

At the sound of the girls screams, each of the boys jolted awake, their instincts taking over. Mojo was shot with laser vision from Brick and was punched over by Butch, leaving room for Boomer to freeze Mojo's body to the wall.

"What was that noise?" Brick asked.

Boomer nodded to the other side of the room. His heart sunk.

"They must have the antidote with them," Boomer said, crawling over to them quickly. He pulled one out of Bubbles' pocket and pricked her finger. When Bubbles opened his eyes, Boomer closed his, resting his head upon her lap. The other boys had just enough time to do the same to their respective counterpoint before Bubbles had time to figure out what was happening.

At which point, she was frantic.

"No!" she shouted. "Why did you do that? _Why did you do that?"_

She fumbled around until she found his antidote and fruitlessly tried to reuse it on her Boomer.

"Wait!" Blossom said, mostly to herself. "Their antidote worked on us. Maybe ours will work on them!"

"It's worth a shot," Buttercup said, and without another word, she jabbed Butch's finger with her own pin, and they waited with bated breath.

And nothing happened.

Bubbles, as usual, was the first to burst into tears, shortly followed by Blossom, who began with a wail but settled into something quieter, with only a few sniffles here and there. And Buttercup, who couldn't recall the last time she'd truly cried, felt tears pouring out of her eyes like a dam had busted.

And then someone stirred beneath her.

"Hey, Red?" Brick said as he blinked awake. "Told you everything would be alright."

Would it be? Blossom thought. When Brick got to his feet and helped her up, she decided. Yeah. Everything would be alright.

…

**Adios, my kind readers! I sincerely hope you enjoyed my first Powerpuff Girls fanfiction! ^^**


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